Golf: Las Vegas jackpot for battling Tataurangi

By MARTIN DAVIDSON

Phil Tataurangi has long had his knockers who said he was too brittle - mentally and physically - to muscle up to the world's best golfers in the United States.

After a career dogged by injury and illness, he proved them wrong yesterday.

The New Zealander went on a birdie blitz in the closing round to win the US$5 million ($10.53 million) Invensys Classic in Las Vegas.

He swept his way past a star cast of the PGA Tour's top players.

Tataurangi carded a 10-under 62, containing 10 birdies, to bank the winner's cheque of US$900,000 ($1.9 million), comfortably the biggest pay day of his 10-year professional career.

He became just the sixth New Zealander - and the second this year after Craig Perks - to taste success on the PGA Tour.

The victory propelled Tataurangi up 44 places to 33rd on the Tour's money-list with season's earnings of US$1.64 million.

One place behind is Perks, who won The Players Championship in March.

Tataurangi joined wife Melanie and their two-year-old son, Kahurangi Jack, on a flight home to New Zealand only hours after making a near-tearful victory speech.

The significance of his performance, coming in his 156th PGA Tour start since he went to the US after leaving the amateur ranks in 1993, cannot be over-stated.

"It's very emotional. Right now it can't get any better than this," said Tataurangi, 30, whose previous best result on US soil was a tie for second at the 1998 Michelob Championship.

"I'm going home to New Zealand tonight, so it's going to be very special."

Tataurangi began the final round of the 90-hole tournament sharing 12th place, five shots behind former No 1 David Duval.

He arrived at the course not knowing his position in the field or what score he would need to at least threaten the frontrunners.

"I didn't even know how far behind the leaders I was or what position I was in. I felt I was playing okay, I'd played well in the previous four rounds, but made a couple of bogeys every day."

What followed was golfing bliss. He sank five birdie putts on the front nine, then repeated the dose coming home as his game came together like never before.

It left him with a five-round card of 29-under 330, one shot ahead of American Jeff Sluman and Australia's Stuart Appleby.

Jim Furyk was next on 332, followed by Rory Sabbatini on 333.

Duval shared sixth place with fellow Americans Dan Forsman and Charles Howell on 334.

Once Tataurangi completed his round he had a nerve-wracking 1 1/2-hour wait as his rivals tried to eradicate his lead.

He was on the nearby driving range as Appleby and Sluman missed birdie putts on the 18th hole that would have forced a playoff.

"I was preparing for a playoff, to be perfectly honest, and was quite surprised - and happy - that it did not eventuate," Tataurangi said.

"I didn't think for one moment I was going to win the tournament today."

He said he was simply following a game plan to play aggressively and didn't even know where he stood after finishing the 18th hole.

He didn't look at the leaderboard, and didn't know how much money he had made, even after being presented with his cheque on the 18th green.

His win not only secures his Tour card for two years, but will likely put him in next year's Masters.

It marked a high point in a career of several lows, no more so than in 2000 and last year when a lingering neck injury threatened to permanently sideline him.

That, and a heart condition which he had corrected by surgery in July, would have felled lesser men.

But Tataurangi has fought back determinedly, a tough fitness regime giving him a thickened frame, more solidity in his shot-making and the mental hardness needed to see him through any on-course battle.

Before arriving in Las Vegas last week, Tataurangi had already enjoyed his best season, with three-top 10 finishes safely securing his playing rights for next year.

Yesterday, he proved something to himself and silenced his doubters.

* Greg Turner ended a 17-year fulltime career in Europe in fitting fashion with a closing-hole birdie on the final day of the Lancome Trophy in Paris yesterday.

Turner rolled in the one-metre putt to finish with a closing-round 72 and a seven-under tally.

He was five strokes behind Germany's Alex Cejka, who won the tournament by two strokes from Argentina's Carlos Rodiles.

- NZPA