Golf: Duffin does grandad proud

By Bob Pearce

Andrew Duffin dedicated his victory in the New Zealand amateur championship yesterday to his grandfather, Owen, a Remuera Golf Club member who died last year.

And the 21-year-old Queenslander, with his father Wayne as caddy, did him proud, taming the course to be five under par when he beat Christchurch golfer Carl Brooking 8 and 7 in the 36-hole final on the east Auckland course.

It was the biggest margin in the matchplay championship since Frank Nobilo beat Peter Maude 9/8 at Hastings in 1978.

Duffin, a stocky young man with a truncated swing and an immaculate short game, had been steady rather than brilliant in the run-up to the final but from the first hole yesterday he never gave Brooking a chance.

He was four up after five holes as his 23-year-old opponent made a nervous beginning. After 18 holes the margin was six with Duffin two under par and Brooking four over.

The Christchurch man had won just one hole as his opponent seemed to thwart him whenever he had a chance. Typical was the par-four 12th where Duffin was in trouble up the fairway and was still short of the green for three.

"I wanted to concede the hole but Dad said to chip it in, so I did," said Duffin later.

Brooking needed to make some impact early in the second 18. He played the first four holes in two under par only to see his opponent play them in three under to increase his lead to seven.

Shot of the day was Duffin's three wood out of a divot to set up a birdie on the 414m par-four second.

Brooking managed to win two holes before the match ended on the 11th where he was inside Duffin but three-putted.

Duffin, a Queensland under-23 representative, was modest about his success.

"I think it was just a lucky week," he said. "I saw he was struggling so I just tried to keep it on the fairway and the green."

Asked whether, as a New Zealand passport holder, he would like to represent this country, he smiled and replied: "I don't want to live over here."

If the final was something of an anticlimax, the semifinals were very intense with Duffin beating Jay Carter (Manor Park) 1 up thanks to a contrived left-hand shot from behind a tree to save par over the water at the 18th. On the previous hole Carter's ball had been buried in a bunker and he had to resort unsuccessfully to a left-handed effort to dig it out.

Brooking beat Hamilton golfer Les Miller 2/1, coming from two down after 18 holes in the 36-hole semifinal.

The championships were a triumph for the Remuera Club and its greens superintendent, Richard Warren.

The course record was progressively dropped to the 65 scored by Adam Hansen (Redwood Park) on the final day of the strokeplay.

And thanks to the immaculate greens there were eagles galore - none better than Chris Johns' on the 13th where he put a three wood from the rough to within two inches of the pin.