Golf: 'Old man' snatches match for Auckland

By GRAHAM SKELLERN

The 18-year-old amateur golfer Brad Heaven is often described by his Auckland team-mates as the "old man" of the side.

During the past three years, the tall, powerful Heaven has picked up plenty of golfing experience, first by breaking through as the leading amateur in the 1996 New Zealand Open at Paraparaumu and then representing New Zealand in junior teams in places like Japan and Australia.

Yesterday at the St Andrews course in Hamilton, he needed all his golfing know-how and confidence to snatch victory and kick-start Auckland's challenge in the Tower interprovincial teams championship.

Heaven stared over a testy two-metre putt for par on the 18th hole and sank it to beat Waikato's Andrew McKechnie 1 up and give Auckland a 3-2 overall victory in the first qualifying round. Auckland had the bye in the afternoon's second round.

"The putt felt like 10 metres; I was pretty nervous over it," said the talented Heaven, the Auckland No 2. "I had looked over to the 17th and saw Chris [Johns] winning his match. I knew I had to sink mine and it was a major relief when it went in."

Waikato, making full use of their local knowledge, looked likely to cause the first major upset of the week-long tournament. But Auckland turned it around over the closing holes to stay on track to make Saturday's semifinals comfortably and have the chance to win their 13th title.

Auckland's No 3, Logan Scott, was four down after 10 holes against Anthony Barkley but squared the match by the 16th. Scott won the 17th but then bogeyed the par-three 18th after hitting his tee shot down the bank and finishing with a half.

Ahead of him, Auckland's No 4, Blair Dibley, sank a twisting, eight metre putt for birdie on the last hole to halve with Evan Woolf, while Geoff Sisson, making his tournament debut, lost 4 and 3 to another talented yougster, Glenn Millin.

The Auckland ship was steadied by their No 1 and national representative, Chris Johns, who was four up after five holes and finally beat New Zealand junior rep Brad Shilton 2 and 1.

Shilton, who got back to all square on the 13th, stayed in the match with his brillant short play around the green, often chipping to save par. But Johns broke his resistance by hitting a nine iron to one metre from the pin on the 16th hole for birdie and then Shilton finally missed a par-saving putt on the 17th.

Northland, who had two matches yesterday, took the early lead in section A after beating the bottom-seeded Poverty Bay-East Coast 4-1 and drawing with Taranaki 21/2-21/2.

Wellington and Manawatu- Wanganui sprinted to the front in section B with victories in both rounds, while Canterbury, who had the morning bye, began the defence of their title by overpowering Poverty Bay 4-1 in the second round.

Last year's semifinalists Bay of Plenty could not stop the Wellington machine, their only win coming from Kent Skellern, at No 4, who beat Jay Carter 1 up. The Bay's No 2, Jason Laing, also performed well, halving with New Zealand representative Gareth Paddison.

The Bay now have two tricky contests against Manawatu- Wanganui this morning and Otago on Friday before they can again think about contesting the last four.

The Wellington No 1, Reon Sayer, regarded as the leading amateur in the country, beat his national team-mate Eddie Burgess (Bay of Plenty) 3 and 2, but then in the afternoon could not handle a blistering attack from Tasman's Glyn Delany.

Sayer, incredibly, was beaten 7 and 6 in Wellington's only loss against Tasman as Delany fired a succession of birdies and was four under when the match finished at the 12th hole.