Golf: Turner anxious to make elite field

By Graham Skellern

Greg Turner, now recovered from a strained back, has flown to Melbourne from his holiday home in Queenstown in a last-ditch effort to qualify for the new $US5 million World Golf Championship matchplay event.

Turner, currently ranked 68th in the world, made a late entry into this week's Australian Masters to played on the Huntingdale course.

He is looking for a top five finish to break into the elite world 64 - the cut off mark for the Andersen Consulting Matchplay at Carlsbad, California, at the end of the month.

The cut off for this lucrative event, which provides $1 million to the winner, is made on Monday.

Frank Nobilo, who finished at the rear of the AT and T Pebble Beach Pro-Am field with a four-over 220 after just making the cut, will also be seeking a much- improved performance at this week's Buick Invitation in San Diego.

Ranked 69th in the world, Nobilo needs to jump five spots to make the matchplay event which is the first of three $US5 million world series tournaments this year.

After aggravating an old back injury during a boating expedition, Turner missed the European PGA Tour's Heineken Open in Perth late last month.

But he left for Melbourne in a good frame of mind after swinging the golf club again last Friday and shooting a 66 at the Millbrook course near Queenstown, playing with All Black squad members Jeff Wilson and Tony Brown and leading Swedish professional Joakim Haeggman.

Turner joins Michael Long, Sunday's winner at the Greg Norman International, Paul Devenport, Steve Alker, Stephen Scahill, Matthew Lane and seven other New Zealanders in the Australian Masters, beginning Thursday.

Like Haeggman, the rejuvenated Michael Campbell - who finished second in Greg Norman's tournament - headed for the next European tour event, the Dubai Classic in the desert of the Middle East.

Long leaped to second place on the Australasian tour's order of merit following his sensational win. His pay of $A180,000 increased his season's earnings to $A209,650, but still well behind the leading money-earner Jarrod Moseley, of Western Australia, with $A303,000.

Campbell also raced up the moneylist, his second prize of $A102,000 lifting his earnings to $A126,833 to be 11th on the order of merit. Lane, the New Zealand Open winner, is 14th with $A95,551.

A number of New Zealanders need good results over the next three weeks to make sure they finish in the top 75 and earn full exemptions for next season's Australasian tour. They are: Martin Pettigrew (77th), Tony Christie (86th), Alastair Sidford (89th), Stuart Thompson (96th) and Simon Owen (104th).

Long will be looking for a top 10 finish on the order of merit to gain a shorter route to qualifying for the USPGA Tour. A top 10 takes Long straight into the final stage of the qualifying school in November.