McKenzie seeks first tour win at MasterCard Masters
BY Bruce Young | Australasian PGA Tour | 2004 MasterCard Masters | Round Three | 11 Dec 2004
Day three at the MasterCard Masters promised so much. Bradley Hughes has been through difficult times in recent years, battling to retain USPGA Tour playing privileges, losing them and then spending two years on the Nationwide Tour trying to get them back. This week he returned to the Huntingdale Golf Club for the first time in nearly seven years and took a four shot lead into day three.
The last time Hughes was here in 1998, he won the event for the second time having won five years earlier in 1993. He has a great love for the golf course and it was showing. Day three, however, would be a different proposition. Building a lead is one thing, maintaining it is another.
In Hughes’ defence however, is that he has had several top tens on the Nationwide Tour this year and that he is a renowned front runner. He has had a very good year on the Nationwide Tour in fact, winning once and producing enough other good finishes to once again safely guarantee his passage to the PGA Tour in 2005. He has a wife and five children back in Connecticut to support so his return to form this season is welcome and satisfying for both him and his many fans here in his hometown of Melbourne.
The weather was drizzly early on, even reaching the stage where steady rain fell briefly, but by the time the leaders were to tee off the cloud had lifted and scoring conditions were once again as good as they get at Huntingdale. A gentle breeze and soft greens were hardly capable of defending the Huntingdale layout and they did not.
Before the leaders even got to the first tee, news was filtering back that the scoring was hot. USPGA Tour player and Queenslander John Senden was five under through ten holes, and although his run came to a halt soon after, it was the forerunner of what was to come.
Nick O’Hern made a run to be out in three under 33 and when he eagled the 10th he was at 11 under for the tournament and just one shot out of second place. O’Hern is, these days, hardly ever out of the top ten in anything he plays, but if he fancied his chances of winning here he knew he needed more, much more, out of this third round.
Steve Bowditch was also on the move. The resurgent golfer was at the point of throwing it all away a few months ago, but a win at the Queensland Open and a brilliant fast finishing third at the Australian Open has seen him regain the confidence and self belief in what was an already significant game. This was the young man who at the age of eighteen finished 7th at Aaron Baddeley’s Kingston Heath Australian Open, but who had lost his way in his early professional years. He is back and his undoubted class is eventually kicking in. When the Queensland based Novacastrian birdied the 8th he was five under for the day and twelve under for the tournament and within three of Hughes.
Behind, the leaders were well and truly under way and almost predictably Peter Lonard was the first of them to make a move. A birdie at the first was followed two holes later by another from three metres at the third and then another at the 4th from a similar distance. Looking just so comfortable over the putter after some minor adjustments to the width of his stance last week, Lonard looked at ease on the greens and capable of holing most that he looked at. It was a pleasant change from his struggle for most of this season on the greens. He made another birdie after a strategic three wood from the tee at the par five 7th then hitting a fairway wood onto the green for a two putt birdie. He was at 13 under and all of a sudden the difference was just two.
But if Lonard was on the move so too was his playing partner David McKenzie. Just six days ago, McKenzie narrowly missed his USPGA Tour card at the Tour School in California after just missing the same card via the Nationwide Tour this year but if he was disappointed, he wasn’t about to let it show here. He was out in 31 and when he birdied the par five 10th, he was within one shot of Hughes. Two holes later courtesy of a lengthy birdie putt at the 12th he was sharing the lead with Hughes. A bad tee shot and the resultant bogey at the 13th slowed him briefly but he bounced back with a lengthy birdie putt at the 15th to move back to a share of Hughes’ lead at 16 under.
Others making moves from further back were the Queenslander Brad Kennedy who now has his European Tour card after a couple of years playing the Asian Tour. A second placing at the Malaysian Open, a co-sanctioned with the European Tour, gave him the dollar momentum to go on and gain his card in Europe for 2005. Kennedy opened with rounds of 67 and 70 but caught fire through the middle of his round today. Seven birdies in ten holes from the 6th saw him leap to 14 under. He dropped a shot at the dangerous 17th but he is in good shape for a final round surge.
Nick O’Hern who, in racing parlance, seems incapable of running a bad race these days, moved to 11 under for the tournament through ten holes and when he added another birdie at the 13th he was at 12 under. A bogey at the last for the West Australian may yet prove costly as it appears likely that he will be in the thick of things tomorrow but perhaps one or two too far back.
The American Hunter Mahan was also taking full advantage of the great scoring opportunities that Huntingdale was offering. Mahan was an outstanding collegiate golfer two years ago in the US before turning professional. He has had a good year on the USPGA Tour this season retaining his card and just two weeks ago he finished second in Japan to David Smail at the Casio World Open. He started his back nine with an eagle and two birdies in the first four holes and he was at 12 under. His run was halted at the 15th with a bogey but it was still a good round of 68 and still has some hope.
As the leaders closed in on the finish, McKenzie was consolidating his position as the tournament leader. A brilliant seven iron to two feet at the last saw him move to 17 under record an eight under 64. His lead was then by two over Hughes, by three over Allenby and by four over Peter Lonard and Brad Kennedy. “The shot at the last was from the perfect yardage for a seven iron for me,” he said.
“My putting was fantastic today,” he said after his round “but my driving was not quite a sharp but it is still it is better than it has been in a long while.”
McKenzie then outlined why he had such a good year.
“I think I have now realized just how fortunate I am to be playing this game for a living and am starting to look at it in a different light than was the case previously. A lot of people out there would give both arms and their first born son to be playing this game for a living so that, plus the fact that I am trying not to get so emotionally involved, has perhaps been the reason for taking my game to a new level this year.” They were comments well received by the media present.
McKenzie has been able to avoid the impact of jetlag saying that he got a really good night’s rest on his return from USPGA Tour School on Wednesday and thus far he has felt great.
McKenzie plans on returning to the Nationwide Tour in 2005 in his quest for USPGA Tour status in 2006, starting perhaps at the first event in Panama then returning for the Heineken, the New Zealand Open, the Jacobs Creek and the New Zealand PGA before heading back to the US.
Hughes said he hadn’t hit the ball all that well and was often in between yardages.
“I didn’t hit a lot of shots close but I hit a lot of good putts which didn’t go in. I hope I got the junk out of the system today and hopefully I’ve got another low round in me tomorrow. I got just the start I wanted but then had my first bogey in 38 holes or thereabouts on the third. I’m only two behind and the way this course is playing I think anyone within five has a chance.
Lonard is four back, but that is only one more than the last day deficit he has started with in the last two events he has played both of which he has won. “I felt I played well until the last few holes and then hit a couple left. I hit a lot of good putts even those that didn’t go in so perhaps tomorrow they may.”
The biggest hurdle that McKenzie may be faced with tomorrow is that he has yet to win a professional event. A professional for seventeen years and at the age of 37 he is well overdue. His time will surely come but whether it will be here at Huntingdale tomorrow remains to be seen. If it does it will be just compensation for a couple of heartbreaks in recent weeks. The only problem with that is that this game is not always just.
