GOLF: six-stroke lead might sound unbeatable, but it can disappear in a hurry.
That, in fact, didn't happen yesterday, but ultimate Wanganui 54-hole Open golf winner Troy Ropiha was starting to wonder late in his final round.
Rophia,of New Plymouth, who finished second to Wanganui's Riki Kauika last year, made an emphatic
statement to the field in yesterday's third round, carding a 65 which included a double bogey at the 11th. That gave him the six-stroke lead going into the final round from Kauika, Manawatu's Stu Smith and New Plymouth clubmate Joon Ho Choi.
And all was going swimmingly until Ropiha came to the long par 14th at Belmont. Admittedly Choi had picked up two strokes, but four ahead with five to play should not be a problem.
Then Ropiha's long game came unstuck and he hooked his drive over the fence, and bunkered his approach. He came out too strongly and took two putts, and a seven.
No matter, there was two strokes in it and unbeknown to Ropiha, Choi was also in trouble at the short 15th. But Ropiha put his tee shot at the same hole into the greenside bunker and blasted out around four metres away. Another dropped shot, and it would be getting very tight. But Ropiha sank the putt.
From that point he played with some care and efficiency, while Choi dropped three shots in the final holes. So in the end Ropiha won by five strokes from Kauika, Choi and Ben Cribb (Golf City).
Ropiha says the out-of-bounds didn't surprise him because he had started to get a bit loose.
"I'd been waiting for that one. I had a couple earlier in the round that weren't so good ? and it was one of those rounds where I was just trying to keep it in play.
"I did try to play as positive as I could, keeping everything as it had been, and then with a few holes to go I pulled back a bit to make sure of it."
But the putt on the 15th was badly needed.
"It was a big putt, because there were stories floating around about how guys were doing ? and we weren't too sure how accurate they were. If I'd dropped another one there it might have been tough.
"But I managed to get there in the end."
