Golf: Price beats the odds on Grange's tricky 13

By WYNNE GRAY


The dangerous 13th hole at The Grange, the round-wrecker for so many in the New Zealand Open, was the unlikely springboard for Terry Price's revival and surge to the championship title.

Until overnight leader Price reached the hole in the final group yesterday, only Bradley Isles in the final-day field had birdied the daunting par four.

When potential winner Brad Heaven negotiated the 13th in par, it seemed he might have also seen off the chasing Price.

Statistics showed how tough the 429m dog-leg right hole was all tournament.

The best the field managed was on the calm opening day, when the average was 4.5 shots.

Yesterday, the average was almost five shots.

But the smooth-swinging 43-year-old Price mocked those odds when his long iron second stopped three metres from the cup and his putt was equally deadly.

That birdie came as Heaven, in the group ahead, was three-putting the 14th in what he later termed his killer mistake.

It was a defining moment in the final stages of the 87th Open.

The two-shot swing allowed Price to draw level, then in the enthralling final holes draw ahead and block Heaven in his quest to be the first amateur winner of the tournament since Harry Berwick in 1956.

Price's ability to conquer the 13th repaired his mixed round and gave him the impetus to hang on for the title.

He played the last six holes one under par, while Heaven leaked to one over in the same stretch.

Before the final round, Price's colleague Peter Senior nominated the 13th as the key hole in the round.

Senior got to seven under for the tournament and had a sniff of victory before he reached his forecast worry hole and made bogey, a score which tripped up his late run at the title.

When Price reached the 13th tee, he was steaming under his distinctive white floppy hat after missing a short putt on the previous hole.

"I knew it was going to be a difficult hole," he said.

"I knew five was a score a lot of people would have, and I said on the second shot, this is one that could win a golf tournament.

"I put a bit of pressure on myself, but it was by no means a snack. It suited me a bit because I am much happier cutting a ball into a right-to-left wind."

His four-iron from 180 metres was spot-on, a shot he rated alongside his drive to reach the par-four 16th as his shots of the day.

While Price's shot-making responded to the late pressure, Heaven mixed a few three putts with several miracle recoveries as he chased his lost lead.

He faded a mid-iron from directly behind one tree to escape with one par, then launched a high draw around some trees after landing metres short of the out-of-bounds line on the 17th.

It left a thrilling conclusion as Price needed to par the difficult last.

He made no mistake, with a long iron that was a replica of his title-taming shot to the 13th.