Golf: Americans hit back

Shut out in Christchurch last week, American golfers are starting to throw their weight around in the New Zealand Open championship.

Three likely lads from the land of the red, white and blue topped the leaderboard after the opening round of the US$600,000 ($1.2 million) tournament in Queenstown yesterday.

Josh Teater and Todd Demsey carved out rounds of seven-under 65 in calm morning conditions at The Hills at Arrowtown before being joined

by compatriot Alex Prugh late in the day.

Prugh produced the round of the day, featuring five birdies in his closing six holes, after battling bracing winds which swept the course in the afternoon, adding two or three shots to the 6610m venue's degree of difficulty.

Tucked in behind the pacesetters after rounds of 67 were Australian Stephen Dartnall, American Martin Piller and Korea's Seung-su Han.

The wind from the southwest largely kept the later groups at bay, too, meaning the joint leaders held a three-shot buffer over a big group banked up on 68, including Steve Alker, the New Zealander who won the New Zealand PGA Championship in Christchurch last weekend.

Alker was joined by 12 others on that number, among them Australian veteran Peter Senior and his compatriot Adam Bland, and Argentine Miguel Angel Carballo.

Only three New Zealanders were inside the top 30, with Alker joined by Grant Waite, and Wellington amateur Thomas Spearman-Burn, who posted matching 70s to be tied for 28th.

The US-based Waite hit 14 of 14 fairways but the world's leading amateur, Danny Lee of Rotorua, was not so accurate.

Lee, 18, had to content himself with a 71 after stumbling home.

He moved to four-under leaving the 13th but bogeyed three of his closing four holes.

He was off his game but still under par despite hitting just six of 14 fairways, 12 of 18 greens and requiring 31 putts.

Likewise, New Zealander Michael Long tripped towards home, bogeying each of his last three holes in his even par 72.

Living legend Sir Bob Charles set yet another record in his storied career by becoming the oldest player in history to contest a Nationwide Tour event.

Two days short of his 73rd birthday, Charles signed for a round of 73 which included two double bogeys and five birdies, leaving him one in front of younger New Zealanders such as David Smail, Gareth Paddison, Josh Geary, Mark Purser and Grant Moorhead.

There was dampness in the air but no rain fell as Teater and Demsey went about their work.

Teater, a Nationwide Tour rookie who tied for seventh at the PGA event last week, held the outright lead at nine-under before he made a mess of his final hole.

The par-four 450m 18th is an exacting test, and on this occasion he did not pass it after finding each of the preceding 17 greens in regulation.

He pulled his three wood off the tee into a fairway bunker, his next went right and short into another bunker and the third ran through the green.

Teater bladed the next across the green before pulling off a classy up and down for his double bogey six.

That was the only low light in a round containing eight threes and a solitary two, with four successive birdies from the 11th, leaving him justifiably happy with his day's work.

"I hit it pretty decent and made some putts. You need to make a whole heap of birdies when the conditions are like this."

Not surprisingly 29-year-old Teater volunteered himself as yet another new fan of The Hills, a private course owned by eccentric jewellery magnate Michael Hill.

"The course is great and when you take in everything around it [stunning scenery], it is hard to stay focused.

"You're looking around. I can't tell you how many pictures I took out here during my practice round."

Prugh, 24, was the class act, ending in style by birdieing the tough, par-four last by putting in from the front fringe 7.6m from the hole.

"It was pretty brutal out there," he said, with a well deserved smile on his face. It was an awkward wind and it kept shifting. It was tough but obviously doable."

His hot streak on the back nine began on 13 when he reached the par-five in two and two-putted, then sank an eight-footer at the next before another birdie at 15 when he got up and down from a greenside bunker.

He drained a 8.2m putt at the next, missed one for more reward at the 17th then made up for it at the last.

"I am looking forward to playing tomorrow morning when there is no wind about," he said.

- NZPA