Golf: Battle to keep Aussies at bay

Waikato's Brad Shilton, now in the professional ranks, was the last Kiwi to win the strokeplay title. Picture / Rotorua Daily Post

New Zealand golfers have the chance to cut off the Aussies' advance when the men's national amateur championships begin at Coringa, near Christchurch, on Sunday.

If they can keep the visiting transtasman challenge at bay, it will be a welcome change because Aussie raiders have taken home the spoils on a regular basis in recent years.

The statistics make grim reading for Kiwi golf fans. For the past four years an Australian has won the matchplay title and, for the past three, both the matchplay and the strokeplay crowns have gone west.

Waikato golfer Brad Shilton, now a professional, was the last Kiwi to win the strokeplay, in 2002. Otago's Ben Gallie, also now in the paid ranks, won the matchplay crown at Mt Maunganui in 2001.

Beginning with Peter O'Malley, who has subsequently won New Zealand Open and NZPGA titles, Australians have won 12 of the last 20 matchplay titles and nine strokeplays.

Last year at Manawatu Golf Club, Mitchell Brown beat fellow Aussie Andrew Dodt in the matchplay final, while Michael Sim won the strokeplay from countrymen Adam Porker and Brown.

Brown, from the Bankstown Club, Sydney, returns to defend his title fresh from a fourth place in the Australian strokeplay at Royal Hobart, where he also reached the final of the matchplay, where he was beaten 1-up by another New South Wales golfer, Tim Stewart, who is also in the field at Coringa.

Another Australian in the lineup will be Steve Dartnall, who finished third in the Australian strokeplay. He earlier won another top Australian tournament, the Riversdale Cup, where leading Kiwi Josh Geary finished equal second with Rick Kulacz.

New Zealand's most successful players at Manawatu last year were Rotorua teenagers Jae An and Danny Lee. An was fourth in the strokeplay and Lee reached the matchplay semifinals.

Lee has been in good form, winning the national under-23 at Hastings and shattering par to win the Grant Clements Memorial at Mt Maunganui. An has been to Asia to try his luck on the Korean professional tour and will not be at Coringa, where he was player of the tournament when Bay of Plenty won the interprovincial title in 2003.

Geary and Waikato's James Gill reached the second round of the Australian matchplay. Gill led for most of the recent South Island championship only to fade over the final three holes as Aucklander Leighton James stormed to victory.

James, 21, has been one of the form players this summer and a good performance should earn him recognition from the national selectors.

The Coringa course, on the fringe of Christchurch Airport, is fairly flat with plenty of trees and can stretch to 6497m with four par-threes, from 146m to 193m, nine par-fours, from 327 to 402m, and five par-fives, from 448m to 546m.

When the wind blows, the longer holes can test even the longest hitters. Par is 73 and it took 32 years before club member Rohan Welsh got the course record down to 68.

The tournament begins on Sunday with the foursomes over 36 holes. The strokeplay championship will be decided over 72 holes from Monday to Thursday, with a cut to the top 72 players plus ties after 36 holes.

The leading 32 players will play 18-hole matchplay on Friday and Saturday before the 36-hole final on Sunday, April 9.

* Wellington lefthander Gareth Paddison has won the inaugural $10,000 Emerald Hotel Pro-Am played at the Poverty Bay Golf Club. Paddison shot a six-under par round of 66, three shots clear of Franz Schwanner (Auckland), Mark Brown (Wellington), Michael Hendry (Auckland) and Bradley Iles (Bay of Plenty).