Golf: Outward calm belies inward turmoil of golf semifinalist

By BOB PEARCE

CHRISTCHURCH - Nicholas Davey gives the impression on the golf course that if he was any more laid back he would be playing last month.

But the 23-year-old from Rotorua admitted that the tension-filled two matches that took him into the semifinals of the Heineken national matchplay championship at Shirley yesterday had him closeted in the locker-room using relaxation exercises.

Today, Davey will play Tauranga golfer Eddie Burgess in one 36-hole semifinal, while in the other, Reon Sayer, from Carterton, will meet the only surviving Australian, Andrew Webster, from Victoria.

On a day when Christchurch alternated between bitterly cold southerlies and warm sunshine, the golf competition was red hot.

Davey, who returned to New Zealand 12 months ago after three years playing golf and studying computer science at the University of Oregon, was level in his morning match with Australian Matt Ballard with one hole to play.

He found the trees with his drive on the 18th, managed to get close to the green with his second, but was still more than 25 feet away after his third.

Ballard looked to have the win with a par until Davey sank his long putt to force an extra hole.

Here, the Rotorua man pushed his drive wide right, faded a three-wood through a narrow gap in some trees, and nailed a winning birdie as his opponent completed a conventional par.

The quarterfinals pitted him against fellow Rotorua player Mark Smith, who had eliminated national representative Richard Best in the morning with a three-birdie burst in the middle of his round.

The 19-year-old Smith had putted brilliantly in earlier rounds to be seven under, but against Davey he faltered at key times on the greens to lose 2 and 1.

Burgess had romped through his early rounds, but had to work very hard to down Brad Shilton (Te Awamutu) in the quarter-finals.

The pair came down the 17th all square. Shilton holed a 25ft birdie putt, only for Burgess to respond with an 18-footer. On the last, Burgess won one up when he holed from 30 feet and Shilton could not respond.

Sayer and Paddison, who are strong contenders for the Eisenhower Trophy team to be named at the weekend, had a titanic struggle.

Sayer won the first and then found himself three under and two down after six as the left-handed Paddison went birdie, birdie, eagle, birdie.

Then some of the putts which Sayer had been missing began to drop and he clawed his way back to be level on the 17th.

He played the last immaculately to win one up with an 11ft putt for birdie, with both players well under the card at the finish.

Webster, another left-hander, is the leading player in the Australian order of merit for Eisenhower selection and he was mightily impressive in beating fellow Aussie Chris Downes.

Australians have won the past two finals. It would be a surprise if they were not in with a chance for the 36-hole final tomorrow.