Golf: Kiwis still with chance of win

New Zealand clawed their way back into title contention yesterday, but the odds still rest in Australia's favour at the Southern Cross Cup amateur teams event in Taupo.

New Zealand reversed the scoreline in Wednesday's loss to Australia by beating Argentina 4-2 at Wairakei International, and South Africa did everyone a favour by dragging the Australians closer to the chasing pack with a feisty 3-3 draw.

That left Australia still in front with 1 1/2 wins and seven individual games, followed by New Zealand on one (6), Argentina one (5 1/2) and South Africa 1/2 (5 1/2).

New Zealand now need to beat South Africa on the final day today and for the doughty Argentines to pull off a huge upset and beat Australia.

Tim Wilkinson provided the backbone to the New Zealand cause yesterday, partnering fellow left-hander Gareth Paddison to a resounding 5 and 4 win over Jaimes Nougues and Patricio Lopez in the morning foursomes, then continuing to impress with a 4 and 2 victory in his afternoon singles against Clodomiro Carranza.

Eddie Lee was badly out of touch in the morning when he and Sam Hunt squandered an early two-hole advantage against Carranza and Julio Madero by dropping three in succession on the back nine to lose 4 and 2.

Lee, 17, came back strongly after lunch to tame Madero 4 and 3.

At one stage New Zealand were well positioned to claim all four singles contests, but Paddison and Hunt faltered on the run home and had to be content with halved results against Nougues and Lopez respectively.

Paddison was not on top of his game all day, but led Nougues, a 38-year-old from Tucuman, by one leaving the 15th after the pair had squared the previous three holes with bogeys.

Paddison then saw his drive off the elevated 16th tee drift right and was forced to chop the ball out from thick bush, while Nougues drilled his tee shot to within a lob wedge of the green.

Paddison placed his third to within 10 feet, but his attempted recovery was ruled redundant when the Argentine drained a 15-footer for a birdie three to draw level.

Paddison then squandered a chance to snatch a win when missing a 6ft birdie putt on the last.

Up by two leaving the 14th, Hunt also had a hiccup late in his round. A slippery three-footer lipped out on the par-three 15th, leaving Lopez to win the hole in regulation and reduce the deficit to one.

Lopez took advantage of that gift on the 374m par-four 16th when his approach left him with a five-footer for birdie, which he accepted.

While acknowledging his side had let slip their chance to complete a clean sweep in the singles, New Zealand manager Terry Pulman was nonetheless happy to bank the winning points.

"It was a little bit disappointing, but overall it was a pleasing result. Four-two is pretty good," he said. "The one point dropped could be crucial, but it might not at the end of the day."

Hunt, 17 and in his second senior appearance for his country, was simply happy to contribute some points after losing his foursomes and singles contests against Australia on Wednesday.

- NZPA