Golf: Aussie triumphs in playoff

By BOB PEARCE

Australian Andrew McKenzie played the 210m par-three 18th hole on the Taupo course five times yesterday before he won the national amateur strokeplay title.

The 21-year-old from Canberra was tied at six-under 282 with fellow Australian Jarrod Lyle, Wanganui's Riki Kauika and Wellingtonian Dimitrios Amos.

In the playoff, they played the 18th downwind but looking into the setting sun after all four had parred the hole in regular play.

The 19-year-old Kauika was the first to drop out, three-putting from 15m. The 18-year-old Amos suffered the same fate the next time around.

But the Australians seemed inseparable in their own version of Groundhog Day. Lyle, a 22-year-old from Victoria who has survived a battle with leukaemia, hit the same shot four times in a row but couldn't sink the 7m putt.

McKenzie twice chipped from the fringe, but never left himself more than a tap-in. That was good enough on the fourth playoff attempt when Lyle lipped out from just over 1m.

"It's the biggest playoff I've ever won," McKenzie said. "But I wasn't nervous at all. It was a test of patience rather than skill on a big green like that.

"Jarrod hit the perfect shot four times but that was a tough putt. I just fired at the hole. Looking into the sun you couldn't see whether you had made the green and the crowd wasn't much help because they didn't clap."

It was the first multiple playoff since the event changed to 72 holes. Ironically there was a two-man playoff in 1989 when the tournament was last at Taupo, when Tony Christie beat Grant Moorhead.

Kauika, one behind McKenzie at the start of the day, appeared to have the tournament won on the 17th. Both he and McKenzie were seven under and he put his tee shot just on the fringe of the par-four hole while the Australian carved his into the bushes below the green.

McKenzie could manage no better than bogey, but Kauika fluffed his chip, was well short with his first putt and needed two more to get down. Lyle, playing in the same group, birdied the hole to draw level on six under.

The three parred the 18th and Amos, who was waiting at the clubhouse with the same score, found himself in the playoff.

The young Wellingtonian played exceptional golf to shoot a final round of 68. McKenzie had 75 and Lyle and Kauika 74.

He had his own "might have been moment" when he used a driver instead of a three-wood from the 16th tee and drove through the fairway to drop a shot.

His 68 was matched on a day made much more difficult by a stiff easterly by young Canterbury golfer Andrew Searle, who finished equal fifth with Australian Michael Sim.

Among those to make the top 32 for the matchplay, which starts today, were the 1989 winner, Lester Peterson from New South Wales, and Murray Martin (Waitara), at 51 the oldest player in the field.

Sixteen-year-old Aaron Leech (Manor Park) was eighth and Jae An, 15, of Springfield, and 18-year-old Kevin Chun (Titirangi) shared 12th place. Nineteen-year-old Aucklander Leighton James (The Grange) continued his good form to make the 32.

McKenzie will play fellow Australian Gavin Flint this morning and Lyle will meet American Nikolas Carter. Flint and Carter won the last two places in a six-man playoff of those on 295.