Green wins first home title to complete great 2004
BY Bruce Young | Australasian PGA Tour | 2004 MasterCard Masters | Wrap | 12 Dec 2004
On a hot sultry Melbourne day, David McKenzie set out in the final round of the MasterCard Masters looking to win his first professional tournament. Seventeen long years after turning pro in 1987, McKenzie had created perhaps his best opportunity to win an event, and an important one at that, with the MasterCard Masters one of Australia’s more significant titles. Between he and victory however, lay not so much the less than demanding Huntingdale layout, but a line up of highly credentialed Australians all capable of making a run at the leader.
McKenzie is at a new level of play in 2004, a healthy new attitude seeing him go so close to gaining his USPGA Tour card via the Nationwide Tour and the Tour School. That attitude was all about eliminating the emotion from the game and finally acknowledging just how lucky he was to be playing the game for a living. It was a refreshing approach and there wasn’t a person who knew McKenzie who would have denied him victory, but he would have to earn it.
That new found attitude would be put to the test immediately at the first when he drove it left into the trees and took double bogey. All of a sudden the two shot cushion was gone and it was on for young and old. Not only had he put a dent in his own self belief and confidence but he had boosted the hopes of many others, some of whom may have felt at the start of the day that their chances were slim. Perhaps they still were but the numbers of players who could now win were increasing.
One player, who like McKenzie has yet to win anywhere since turning professional in 1998 was the Victorian Geoff Ogilvy. Ogilvy has added a lot of dollars to his name on the USPGA Tour in the last few seasons but no titles. Today he started the day at seven under and when he reached the turn in 33 he was at 10 under and perhaps had nothing yet to get excited about. An eagle at the 10th followed by a birdie at the 12th had him at 13 under and instead of being ten shots behind, as he was when he started the day, he was just two back of McKenzie and Hughes. A birdie at the 14th and he was within one. Could he post the sort of score that would test those behind or had he left his run too late? Two holes later that question was answered when he double bogeyed the 17th to let any hope slip.
Stuart Appleby, the second highest world ranked player in the field, is of course a multiple winner, although only twice on his home tour but he has been in fine form at the Australian Open and at the Nedbank Challenge in recent weeks. When he got to 12 under for the tournament through just six holes today, the juices were beginning to flow. A birdie at the 10th and 11th and he too was breathing down the necks of Hughes and McKenzie just one back.
At that point fifteen players were within three of the lead and indeed just twenty minutes later eight players were within just one shot. It was a case of fasten your seat belt.
McKenzie regained the lead alone at the par five, 6th with a birdie to go to 16 under and he had broken one clear of Hughes who could only manage a par there from the middle of the fairway.
While this was going on, Corey Pavin was sneaking into calculations. Four birdies in the first ten holes had him at 14 under and he was looking good to improve on his share of fourth last week at the Cadbury Schweppes PGA Championship.
Peter Lonard, looking to establish a record in Australian golf by being the first player to win the Australian Open, the Australian PGA and the MasterCard Masters in the same year, took a while to get going today, in fact it took until the 6th before he recorded his first birdie to move to 14 under. He gave that back at the next, on a hole he was no doubt also looking to birdie. He immediately regained the dropped shot at the 8th to move back to within two of McKenzie. As he had done in each of his recent wins, he was lurking on Sunday waiting to make his move and waiting for those ahead to make their mistakes.
Greg Chalmers, who this season lost full playing rights in the US, bogeyed the first today, but from that point on he reeled off eight birdies in the next sixteen holes to get to 17 under and just one back of Green. The four birdies he had from the 13th staked his claim for his first win at home since the 1998 Australian Open. The question would be as to how he would finish it off and how those around him would fare. A par at the last from a missed green saw him finish at 17 under and that was the mark that the others had to equal or better.
Chalmers said immediately after his round that he felt he had a good round in him and he was just hoping it was today.
“If I could turn back the clock it would have been nice to birdie the 7th (a reachable par five). I had an easy chip there and did not do it. I got my fair share on the back nine however. I felt I had a chance today. I figured I would have to shoot eight under which is of course crazy stuff but there was a low round out there. I may have come up one short but we shall have to wait and see.”
Chalmers has lost status on the USPGA Tour this season but said he looked at life through the half full glass rather than the half empty version.
“I think I am fortunate to be playing the Nationwide Tour next year. A lot of guys would be pleased to be there.”
While much of the pre-round talk had been as to whether McKenzie could win his first title, there was another golfer out on the course who also had yet to win in Australia, but who was about to stake his claim.
Richard Green has come off his best season in Europe with three runner-up placings and several other top tens. His season has paralleled that of Nick O’Hern in many ways with both recording great seasons without winning. Although Green won a playoff against Woosnam and Norman to win early in his professional career in Dubai in 1997, he has been noticeably absent from the list of contenders in Europe until this season.
When he birdied the first four holes of his homeward nine today, he had taken the lead at 18 under. When he hit his second to ten metres at the par five 14th it appeared as if an opportunity existed to knock a nail or two in a few coffins. When he three putted however it was game on again. McKenzie three putted the 11th and at that point Green led by one over Chalmers and by two over McKenzie. Still very much in the picture though were the likes of Lonard, Pavin, Kennedy and Hughes. Green would go on to par the back nine apart from a bogey at the 17th and he finished at 17 under and joined Chalmers awaiting what they could now not control, namely the finish of those playing behind.
McKenzie would not go away. He holed from the green edge on the 12th to get to 17 under and then from the left hand tree line on the 13th he left himself a three metre putt for birdie, which he missed. Would that be crucial? A two putt birdie at the next answered part of that question, but a stiff examination of his nerve and game lay ahead of him over the next 45 minutes. The response to that examination came in the form of bogeys at the 15th from the right hand bunker after a wayward tee shot and again at the 16th. While this was going on, Bradley Hughes was coming back with birdies at the 15th and 16th. His birdie across the green at the 15th was going so fast when it hit the hole that it would have gone at least ten feet past had it not gone in. He had half the equation right however, the line, and it disappeared into the hole for a birdie for him to join the lead at 17 under.
Hughes would then birdie the 16th to take the lead and when he parred the dangerous 17th, he stood on the 72nd tee with a one shot lead. His drive went into the tussock grass lining the right hand rough.
“I stood on that tee and because I had been driving it so well all week I gave no thought to doing anything other than driving it,” he said.
“I could have taken the three wood and taken all that trouble out of the equation. I actually thought I had a hit a reasonable drive but the breeze was a little more left to right than I thought and it drifted right. I had no option but to drop it.”
The ball was unplayable and he took a penalty drop.
“I had no option but to take an unplayable. If I had tried to play it, it might have come back at me. Then the lie was a little dodgy when I dropped it.”
From there his five iron third came up short of the green.
He decided to putt from fifteen metres. The ball bobbled a little as it climbed the rise in the front of the green and came up four metres short. While he waited, McKenzie had a putt from just outside him to join the playoff which he made and so the stage was left to Hughes to make it to join the then three man playoff or miss and settle for a share of fourth. Unfortunately it would be the latter.
“I hit a good putt to tie but it was not to be.”
The first playoff hole was back to the 18th and Chalmers drove right, behind a tree, while both Green and McKenzie hit the fairway. Chalmers somehow manufactured a shot that saw him finish seven metres from the hole. Green followed with a simply brilliant ’knocked down’ 7 iron that never left the flag and came to rest a metre from the hole. McKenzie, looking to respond to the almost automatic birdie that awaited Green, came up short with his 8 iron approach and he chipped to just over a metre. Chalmers putt was always below the hole and when McKenzie knocked his in for par, the centre stage was Green’s.
The Victorian’s putt was never in doubt and his first Australian title was in the bag.
McKenzie said later that he had not played well but applied a motto that he has been using lately namely to never, never, never, give up.
“The week reinforces the fact that the things I have been doing are right and that the self belief I now have is paying dividends. Today it felt like all out war but I enjoyed it.”
Chalmers made mention of the fact that to be beaten by a shot such as Richard had hit makes everyone feel better.
“Nobody lost the playoff he won it and well done to Richard.”
Green talked later of the importance that his caddy this year, Stuart Dryden, had played in his great season. As I reported in the article I wrote on Green earlier this year on www.iseekgolf.com he places a great deal of faith in what Dryden has to offer on the course and such faith appears well placed.
“He is one of the best caddies out there and one of the most level headed guys I know,” he said today.
Green’s win also gave him the Order of Merit title for 2004 perhaps by default because Lonard actually won more money than him although he played an insufficient number of events to be considered for the title. Lonard was prevented from playing the minimum four events due to injury but was not able to claim dispensation by the Australasian Tour for that. It will make little difference to Green however as he now has starts at the US Open, the British Open and World Golf Championship events. His current ranking of #80 will improve considerably also.
His best European season and now, with this win, the long awaited home victory and Australasian Order of Merit title. It has been quite a year for Richard Green and a well deserved one.
Photo – Anthony Powter
