Gutsy Parry emerges from playoff saga at Heineken

BY Bruce Young | Australasian PGA Tour | 2005 Heineken Classic | Wrap | 06 Feb 2005

There was an interesting mix at the top of the leaderboard heading into day four of the Heineken Classic. Two players not all that accustomed to winning, one tough and hardened campaigner used to winning in Craig Parry, the pre tournament favourite Ernie Els and Brett Rumford who has yet to win an event as a professional in Australia. They were certainly not the only players in the mix but it was clear that something very special would be needed from those further back if they were to feature.

O’Hern, still to some extent recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery, has won only once in his professional career on a regular tour that is when winning the 1999 Schweppes Coolum Classic at the Hyatt Regency Coolum in Queensland. He has, however, regularly put himself into position to win, more especially over the last twelve months often featuring inside the top ten and recording his best ever year. As to how much he has gained from that experience was about to be tested on day four here.

Lyle, the 23-year-old local, is in just his sixth professional event and while he has played well in those, this would be a different test altogether. Not only would he be under the utmost scrutiny but he faced the prospect of a winner’s cheque of A$360,000 and a place to play in 2005 given that he would received instant graduation to the European Tour.

Parry has won everywhere in the world and is a no compromise sort of character who will never back down from a battle when contending for a tournament. He has won twice on the USPGA Tour in the last eighteen months and so a win here at the Heineken would not be beyond him.

Ernie Els – well his world ranking speaks for itself and that he was attempting to win this event for the fourth consecutive year is all that needs to be said on this class player and person.

The opening stanza didn’t let the expectant fans down. Birdies by Parry and Lyle at the first had them leapfrogging the overnight leader O’Hern who surprisingly took bogey at the short par four. At the par five next however, O’Hern fought back with a brilliant second from over 220 metres to less than two metres and when that disappeared for eagle he was at 15 under and back sharing the lead although this time with Parry who himself had birdied the second. Lyle found trouble with his second at the second and was forced to take a drop. He dropped a shot there but if there was any thought of the inexperienced rookie falling victim to the disappointment of a bogey at the reachable par five, then he quickly dispelled such thoughts when he bounced back at the next with a birdie at the par three from four metres.

Lyle birdied the 6th to join both Parry and O’Hern in the lead and they matched blows until the 8th where Parry missed the green at the potentially dangerous par three from the tee. So also did O’Hern, apparently distracted by a spectator or road noise from the adjacent road. Lyle on the other hand hit his tee shot straight at the flag and came to rest five metres beyond. Parry made the most magnificent up and down for his par from below and left of the green and from behind a tree. He said later that it was pretty straight forward. I am yet to be convinced.

Els made significant but steady progress but a good chance for birdie at the 9th went begging and when he bogeyed the 10th he was back to 13 under and two shots out of the lead which soon became three when Parry went further ahead with a birdie at the 9th.

At the 10th the dream run of Lyle came to a screaming halt when he found the trees from the tee, chipped out and then found the greenside bunker with his third. He showed some impressive intestinal fortitude however with a putt from three metres to save bogey and drop back to 13 under.

Els recovered quickly from his bogey at the 10th with a birdie at the par three 11th and he was back to fourteen under and within one when Parry bogeyed the 10th after a pulled second shot. O’Hern too bogeyed the 10th and before you knew it just one shot separated four players.

Just a few minutes later minute at the short par four 12th, Els hit a very ordinary pitch from just fifty metres or so to ten metres and a three putt would see him fall two back of Parry.

The demanding back nine in this configuration of the Royal Melbourne layout would test them all. The composite course has been altered as much for tournament logistics as anything else and to a large extent it has taken away some of the intrigue that a variety of holes can give in a tight finish to an event. The old layout saw a tough par three, a reachable par five and a potentially dangerous par four to finish. While those holes are still incorporated into the great layout here they come at different stages of the round. Now there are seven consecutive par fours to finish and while great holes in their own right it is the lack of variety in terms of par that has changed the nature of the finish. It means therefore that it is a grind to the finish and that is exactly what the likes of Lyle, Parry, O’Hern and co had ahead of them.

While we were all focused on the more familiar names, a man emerging from almost obscurity until now, was the Englishman Simon Dyson. Dyson who played the early part of his career in Asia where he won three events, has yet to win on the European Tour but after birdies at the 12th, 13th and 15th, he was all of a sudden in a share of the lead. He was the only one to fly the European flag on a day dominated until that point by Australians and South Africans.

Lyle, Parry and O’Hern traded blows but Els could not get the birdie he needed to join the party and in fact when he pushed his second to the last his chance was gone. He needed a birdie there to have any chance of joining the playoff but appeared distracted as he hit is second by a comment from the corporate area. A pulled second at the 13th would cost Parry a bogey and a similar tee shot at the 15th netted the same result for Lyle. O’Hern bogeyed the 14th and so as the final threesome reached the 17th green, Parry needed a birdie to join Lyle and O’Hern at 14 under. His approach to five metres set up the chance and as he rolled the curling right to left putt into the cup he raised his arm in the air and broke into a broad smile.

The final threesome reached the last with all three tied and after Parry and O’Hern had driven it perfectly it was then up to Lyle to follow suit. He again pulled it left but said later that he didn’t think it was as bad as it was. When he found it all he could do was pitch it out and was still left with 130 metres or so to try and get up and down to save par. His third covered the flag but was long and and when he missed his par putt his chance was effectively gone. “I was just so happy to have taken it to the whole field for so long today. I’m disappointed that I am still not out there but deep down inside I feel like I am a champion.” It summed up what was a week that has seen Lyle make an early mark in Australian professional golf.

Parry and O’Hern both missed their chance at birdies, Parry from much shorter distance than O’Hern, and it was back down to the 18th tee for the first of the playoff holes. O’Hern drove it well but Parry’s was right and although in the clear he had to negotiate the right hand greenside trap to access the flag. O’Hern was first to play his second and covered the flag finishing just three metres from the hole, perhaps less. Parry caught the right hand trap with his approach and despite a good bunker shot finished five metres behind the hole facing a tricky left to right putt to save par and force O’Hern to make his. Like the gutsy competitor he is, Parry found a way to hole the putt. Now it was O’Hern’s turn. His putt from perhaps two and a half metres caught the edge of the cup as it turned below the hole and so it was back to the 18th again to break the deadlock.

Both drove it perfectly and again O’Hern knocked it close to perhaps four metres. This time Parry found the green but was long, the shot feeding back in off the bunker to an almost identical position to that he was in ten minutes earlier when he holed for par. Parry missed his putt and so it was again up to O’Hern from three metres to finish it off. His putt again shaved the right edge and so it was this time to the 17th.

Both drove it perfectly and were left with shots of around 140 metres. O’Hern hit his second to seven metres, Parry was short and spun back down into the swale and then pitched long to four metres. O’Hern ran his putt just past and awaited the result of Parry’s par attempt from four metres. When Parry holed it yet again to keep the playoff going O’Hern tapped in for his par and so it was again back to this time the 18th.

This time Parry drove it long and straight and O’Hern who had played second from the tee in the playoff, flirted with the left hand bushes but was ok and in fact had a good angle to the flag. He was first to play and almost unbelievably hit his shot to the same distance as he had on the 18th both times previously, namely three metres. Parry, again from the middle of the fairway, hit his shot to a metre outside that of O’Hern’s and when he struck his putt it never looked like missing. Now it was O’Hern’s turn not to win the hole but this time to save it and again almost in a replay of what had happened previously, he slipped past the right edge and it was all over, with Parry the champion.

For O’Hern the questions will come as to how he wasn’t able to finish it off but he should be pleased, so soon after arthroscopic knee surgery, to have produced perhaps his best Australian result. He has won previously but this was against a much stronger field and what he can feel proud of is that he produced some fine shots into the playoff holes when the heat was on. Three times at the 18th hole he knocked it to three metres or so and therefore he can take solace in that.

“It was very frustrating. I hit the shots I wanted to in the playoff, and the putts, but the ball didn’t seem to want to go in the hole for me. It was the story of the day really I got an indication on the first green just how much quicker the greens were going to be when I ran my twenty footer four feet past after I thought I had left it short. I hit the putts I wanted to each time in the playoff they just broke a lot more each time. You think I would learn, but I guess I didn’t. I played my heart out today but it just didn’t happen. It is pleasing however to have your hands shaking a bit but still be able to hit great shots. It shows that all the hard work I have done with my game and on the mental side of things is paying off. It’s also nice to know that after a six week layoff that I can still play such good golf.”

For Parry he reflected on the joy of winning around Royal Melbourne.

“I came with my grandparents when I was five and watched golf and played here for the first time as a thirteen year old. When Jenny (Parry’s wife) and I sat down to go over our schedule a few weeks ago, I was thinking of staying in Sydney and be with the kids when they started school but she knew how much I liked Royal Melbourne and knew that I had played well at the Mercedes and encouraged me to play.”

“It was bloody hard work out there because each hole I thought I was going to lose. It could quite easily have finished at the first hole and every time we played the 18th hole he (Nick O’Hern) hit good shots in there. Today I thought of my ten year old son Ryan and his relaxed attitude with putting, especially when I had the putts to save the holes. He is such a good putter he hits it in at the right speed and when I was over those putts that was all I was trying to think of.”

For Parry his win will now ensure not only that he makes the Accenture Match Play field but that he won’t be faced with “playing Vijay in the first round”.

Parry now heads to Auckland to play the New Zealand Open for the first time since his win in 2002 against a field that included Tiger Woods.

“I feel the way I am playing right now that I have a good shot at it next week also.”

If this is to be the end of the Heineken Classic era as such, it was a fitting end to an era in Australian golf that has seen some of the world’s best players grace the fairways of the Vines Resort and Royal Melbourne during its time.

Photo – Anthony Powter