American wins Long Drive International in Auckland

American Maurice Allen won the International Long Driver Golf Invitational on Sunday in Auckland defending his title as the best long driver out of Europe.

Held at Remuera Golf Club, on the par five first hole, Allen started slow in an effort to work out the strong head wind before finishing with the longest shot of the day, 359 metres.

Allen won the title ahead of Swedens 19-year-old Emil Roseberg in a match play. Roseberg had led the competition in the early rounds with a couple of shots of 340 metres before he hit 354 metres only to be overtaken by the experienced man from Florida.

"The wind was difficult today, but I was able to come through and work my way into it. Its been great to come here and win this great event. There was some tough competition today and I really had to step up," said Allen.

Throughout the finals there was just a metre or two separating competitors with Teemu Pikanen from Finland narrowly accounting for the 2.03m Timo Petrasch from Germany by the smallest of margins.

Even qualifying for the top four playoffs came down to just a metre with Tanguy Marionex (Belgium) and Ilija Djurdejevic (Serbia) finishing fifth equal but only by a metre and Hollands Bob de Boef not far behind.

It is aimed that the event will become part of the a world tour where the winner will earn a place in the final round of qualifying for the American World Championships which has huge prizemoney and live television coverage around the world.

Final standings:

1st Marice Allen (United States),

2nd Emil Roseberg ( Sweden),

3rd Teemu Pikanen (Finland),

4th Timo Petrasch (Germany),

5th = Tanguy Marionex (Belgium),

5th = Ilija Djurdejevic (Serbia),

7th Bob de Boef (Holland)

- This story has been automatically published using a media release from New Zealand Tennis