Golf: Australian men too classy for rest of field

Australia turned up the heat to win the Southern Cross Cup amateur teams event at Wairakei yesterday.

They retained the crown they won in the inaugural event two years ago by taking Argentina to the cleaners 5 1/2 to 1/2 and extend the advantage they held entering the third and final round yesterday.

New Zealand beat South Africa 4 1/2 to 1 1/2 to finish the day as they started, in second place.

Australia ended the biennial four-nation contest with 2 1/2 out of a possible 3 points and 12 1/2 individual games, with New Zealand behind on 2 (10 1/2), Argentina 1 (6) and South Africa 1/2 (7).

New Zealand's chances of securing the title rested on Argentina's pulling off a huge upset yesterday, but Australia quickly killed off any likelihood of that.

They easily won both morning foursomes before their only let-up, the halved singles between Luke Hickmott and Julio Madero.

New Zealand had to beat South Africa to earn second place.

When the morning foursomes were shared, after Eddie Lee and Sam Hunt, both aged 17, suffered their third successive loss under the alternative shot matchplay format, a home-town success was anything but guaranteed.

But Hunt and Lee redeemed themselves with compelling singles successes, Rotorua schoolboy Hunt doing so in style to be six-under the card and bogey-free in beating Nico Le Grange 4 and 3.

Lee was behind in his contest with Jaco van der Merwe until the 535-yard par-five 14th, which he won in miraculous fashion by holing out from a fairway sand trap 186 feet short of the elevated green for an eagle three.

And for good measure, he sank a 10ft birdie putt on the par-three 15th to hit the lead at last.

Van der Merwe bogeyed the 16th and 17th for Lee to win 3 and 1. Gareth Paddison beat Thomas Aiken by the same score, and Tim Wilkinson halved his match with Louis Oosthuizen.

For Hunt and Lee, singles success compensated for another poor foursomes performance when they were caned 7 and 5 by Aiken and Le Grange.

- NZPA