Golf: Pro golf comes easy for leader Rumford

By DAVID LEGGAT

WELLINGTON - Life as a golf professional must seem pretty good for young West Australian Brett Rumford as he leads the New Zealand Open field into the second round at Paraparaumu Beach today.

Rumford, aged 24, shot a 5-under 66 yesterday in his first event since giving away his amateur status at the start of the millennium, and he did it with a flourish on a sweltering day.

He had two birdies by the turn, added another at the 11th then picked up two eagles heading for home. He sank a 12-foot putt on the 12th to go to 5-under, dropped shots on each of the next two holes, before spectacularly chipping in from just off the front of the green on the 18th to regain the lead.

Rumford is already a winner on the tour this summer, joining his mate Aaron Baddeley as an amateur champion when he won the Players Championship in Queensland. As is the golfer's way, while happy with what he had achieved, he still had time last night to bemoan missed opportunities.

"It was weird. I had two good birdie opportunities at six and seven and let them go to waste," he said. "Every hole you should play well I scrambled, and on those you should be patient I played well."

Six players are a shot back, and with 28 players sitting between five and two-under, Rumford isn't about to get carried away.

"There's a long way to go and there's so much depth. The course was playing very easy. I'm surprised there wasn't an eight or nine-under out there because it's possible."

Rumford teamed up with Baddeley to win the New Zealand amateur foursomes at Remuera last April. While Baddeley has taken the limelight with his Australian Open triumph in November, Rumford, with Europe in his sights later this year, has a steely-eyed determination to succeed - "I've been working the last six years every day for this."

His closest chasers include little-known Australians Chris Gray, Matthew Habgood, Jason Dawes and David Podlich, while Kiwis Stephen Scahill and Takapuna-based professional Rhys Bishop - No 1 on New Zealand's pro-am circuit - are waving the home flag.

Of the bigger names, Greg Turner tumbled from 4-under to finish even-par as a tendon injury threatened his involvement in the remainder of the Open; Michael Campbell couldn't get anything going but is handily placed at 2-under; and Baddeley was off his game but at 1-over is in the frame.

But if Baddeley is concerned at his form - which he put down in part to lack of recent tournament play - it isn't showing, and the youthful confidence remains.

"It was a frustrating day. Really I should have been a couple in the red [under par]. I wasted about five or six shots at least, and did it pretty easy. [Hopefully] I got the bad shots out of the way today and I'll knock them all in tomorrow."

Of the 49 players to go under par yesterday, 15 were New Zealanders.