Golf: Beware the Aussie challenge

By Graham Skellern


The Australians will again be a dominant force at the New Zealand amateur men's golf championships which tee off with the foursomes at the Auckland Remuera club on Sunday week.

Normally the dangerous Australian golfers make their own way across the Tasman. But for the first time the Australian Golf Union is sending over a talented
foursome.

The golfers - Brendon Jones, Brett Rumford, Aaron Baddeley and Scott Gardiner,
ranked in the top five in their country - are all good enough to snatch the national matchplay title.

Bryce McDonald, who triumphed at Paraparaumu last year, Paul Fitzgibbon (in 1994) and Lucas Parsons (in 1991) have walked the fairways before them, in the past decade, to capture the New Zealand championship.

McDonald, who has Kiwi origins by being born in Wellington, has since turned professional and will not be defending his title.

But Jones will be keen to collect the trantasman double after last month winning the Australian matchplay title, over New Zealand's Mahal Pearce in the final.

Rumford, last year's Australian champion, the young sensation Baddeley, and Gardiner, who was the leading individual at the New Zealand under 23 teams event in January, represented their country at the Four Nations Friendship Cup event a fortnight ago; Jones, Rumford and Baddeley also finished second in the world Eisenhower Trophy teams event last year.

Six other golfers from Queensland have also entered - including Matthew Ballard on a plus 2 handicap and Travis Johns on plus 1.

A field of 117 - the cut off was a handicap of 3.1 - line up for the first two rounds of strokeplay qualifying, with the number reduced to 64 for the final two rounds of strokeplay before entering the matchplay phase.