Golf: NZ team try to keep low profile

By MARTIN DAVIDSON

KUALA LUMPUR - New Zealand failed to achieve their first aim at the world amateur teams golf championships in Kuala Lumpur.

The players, coaching staff and management delayed their arrival in the Malaysian capital until three days ago and hoped to begin the Eisenhower Trophy event today with as little fanfare as possible.

But they could not slip in unnoticed despite non-playing team captain Terry Pulman's determination to play down expectations his side could become the second New Zealand team to win the championships.

Eddie Lee, Tim Wilkinson and Brad Shilton are considered among the favourites in the 63-nation field at the Saujana Golf and Country Club. The event's organisers and local newspapers have tipped them to be in title contention on Sunday.

The October edition of Asian Golf Monthly magazine featured a four-page spread on Lee, the team spearhead.

It all left Pulman with a feeling of unease.

"As a team, we are keeping a very low profile.

"We've come in very late on purpose. We are not building ourselves up," Pulman said after the first of two practice rounds the New Zealanders played before the tournament.

Most teams arrived last Saturday to take advantage of four practice rounds available on the two courses being used for the biennial championships.

New Zealand's decision to spend five days in Singapore before heading to Kuala Lumpur may have raised some eyebrows but Pulman said the matter had been thoroughly thought through.

Lee and Wilkinson have won events in Malaysia in the past two years and all three team members have played there regularly. They already know the Palm and Bunga Raya courses well and opted for an extended stopover in Singapore to work on their games in relative quiet.

Pulman said the five-day stopover in Singapore had worked well.

"Conditions in Singapore (six hours by road south of Kuala Lumpur) were very similar to here," he said of the 35deg heat which greeted the players on the course.

"We could not have asked for a better buildup."

Lee, Wilkinson and Shilton face stiff competition as they seek to win New Zealand's first Eisenhower Trophy since 1992 when Michael Campbell, Phil Tataurangi, Stephen Scahill and Grant Moorhead triumphed in Canada.

The main threat comes from the United States, the defending champions.

The American team are this year's US amateur champion Ricky Barnes, runner-up Hunter Mahan and D. J. Trahan, the NCAA player of the year.

Australia's team of Adam Groom, Andrew Buckle and Marcus Fraser are also strong.

Groom finished fifth at this year's New Zealand Open at Paraparaumu and won all his matches when Australia won the Southern Cross Cup against New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina in Taupo last year.

Fraser is the reigning New Zealand amateur champion and won the individual title at the 2001 Asia-Pacific teams championships. Buckle won the Saujana amateur championships at the Eisenhower venue this year.

Korea and Japan are expected to thrive in the heat and England also have high expectations.

This is the first year the Home Nations are competing individually.

The first-round draw gives New Zealand a late tee-off time of 11am (4pm NZ time) alongside Wales and Bermuda.

- NZPA