Golf: Paddison adds silver lining

Facing a tough opponent, Gareth Paddison answered mother nature's lighting storm with some of his own to strike a blow for New Zealand at the Southern Cross Cup amateur teams event in Taupo yesterday.

Paddison could not prevent a comfortable 4-2 win for the Australians, but his victory over Marcus Fraser in the last singles contest lifted his team's spirits nonetheless.

The tall left-hander, who is poised to turn professional when the four-nation event ends tomorrow, was pushed hard by Fraser before sinking his eighth birdie on the 17th green to win 2 and 1.

In the second of yesterday's match-ups, Argentina posted a deserved 3 1/2 to 2 1/2 win over South Africa.

Paddison's performance on the par 72, 6470m course was the highlight of a wild and woolly day. Play in the morning foursomes was suspended for 80 minutes after a downpour flooded the greens.

Having dropped the foursomes 0-2 to Australia, New Zealand faced an almost impossible task after lunch to overhaul the deficit in the four singles matches.

Tim Wilkinson and Sam Hunt left a truckload of short putts on the course, and were never ahead in their duels with Adam Groom and Steven Bowditch. Wilkinson went down 3 and 1 and Hunt 2 and 1, both on the penultimate hole

But New Zealand's Eddie Lee beat Luke Hickmott 2 and 1.

Wilkinson and Hunt's downfalls were due to a series of three-putts on the Wairakei greens, which flummoxed most players.

Even Paddison, who looked in control, admitted to finding the greens tricky.

"They're a little bit grainy and it was very difficult to determine the line."

That said, the Australians performed much better with putter in hand, a fact acknowledged by New Zealand manager Terry Pulman.

"Tim and Sam, in particular, missed a lot of short putts. They three-putted too many times and that kills you in matchplay."

Paddison knew he had his work cut out when he found himself two down after five holes against Fraser, whom he had beaten in the Four Nations Cup in Canada in August before going on to win the Canadian amateur championship.

He chipped in from off the green for birdie at the 434m par-four sixth to halve the deficit, but did not draw level until midway through a birdie blitz on the 10th, 11th and 12th holes.

He went ahead for the first time on the 12th before they were all square again when he posted one of his two bogeys of the round on the 14th.

More birdies at 16 and 17 were enough to see him home.

"Marcus played extremely well, but he missed a few more opportunities than I did. I was just fortunate to hit a few shots to within five to six feet and I ended up getting most of them," Paddison said.

Meanwhile, Argentina opened the event with a fine result.

Their most dominant individual was Clodomiro Carranza, who beat Louis Oosthuizen 3 and 1 after partnering Julio Madero to a 3 and 2 foursomes win over Oosthuizen and Jaco van der Merwe in the morning.

New Zealand play Argentina today.

- NZPA