Golf: Compatibility a driving force in shootout

When the American Ryder Cup captain starts pairing up his superstars in a couple of years' time, he might take a hint from this week's Franklin Templeton shootout in Florida.

The Americans crashed to defeat in the cup this year pairing more by ranking than by compatibility.

But the shootout was won for the second year in a row by two of the most physically dissimilar players on the US tour, who complement each other's strengths.

Jeff Sluman is 1.7m (5ft 7in) and an extremely steady player, who hits a high percentage of fairways and greens. Hank Kuehne is 1.87m (6ft 2in) and leads the tour in driving distance, averaging 287m, 32m further than Sluman.

At 47, Sluman is coming to the end of a distinguished career, which includes victory in the 1988 US PGA. Sadly his visit to Titirangi to play in the Air New Zealand tournament that year was an embarrassment as he missed the cut.

Kuehne, a 29-year-old Texan, comes from a remarkable family of golfers.

He won the US amateur title in 1998, his sister is on the LPGA tour and his older brother, who remains an amateur, was runner-up to Tiger Woods in the US amateur.

The pair proved the perfect combination for the shootout, which includes many of the elements of the Ryder Cup. They birdied four of the last five holes to beat Justin Leonard and Steve Flesch by two strokes.

Their 29-under for the 54 holes, six shots better than their winning total in 2003, earned them US$300,000 ($428,500) each.


AS New Zealand's top provincial players battle for supremacy at the Napier Golf Club this week, it is timely to recall some noteworthy events from the past at the Waiohiki course.

Back in 1972 when the interprovincial tournament was last held at Napier, Waikato won from Otago with Bay of Plenty third.

That Bay team included a man who was to have an immense influence on the game in this country. Grant Clements played number four for the Bay and never progressed much further as a player.

But he became chief executive of New Zealand Golf and, at the time of his untimely death in 1999, he was recognised as one of New Zealand's foremost sports administrators. He has been sorely missed in recent times.

In 1989, the women's national championships were staged at Napier and both the strokeplay and matchplay championships were won by a long-hitting South Korean, Won Jae Sook, who also starred at the Queen Sirikit tournament at North Shore.

The Korean visit was a learning experience for both guests and hosts. The Koreans had never played matchplay before and, in the first round, were not conceding even the shortest putts.

Someone put them wise to the local custom and the Koreans improved on it by giving their opponents putts of up to two metres!

The experience must have been a good one because 15 years later a big proportion of fields at this level consists of young Koreans and they don't concede too many putts.

The men have held their amateur championships at Napier four times. The first, in 1903, was won by local champion Kurupo Tareha and the most recent, in 1996, by Aucklander David Somervaille.