Gardiner defeats Day in playoff to win QLD PGA

BY Bruce Young | Von Nida Tour | 2005 Queensland PGA | Wrap | 13 Nov 2005

The week of the 2005 Greater Building Society has been a week of firsts and significant achievements by a group of emerging players culminating in today’s win by Gold Coast based Scott Gardiner.

For Gardiner it was his first win in a four round professional golf tournament but others would create benchmarks in what must go down as one of the most successful ever Queensland PGA Championship.

On Friday it was New South Welshman, Brad McIntosh, who brought the event so much publicity with his stunning twelve under round of 59 and today it was two Queenslanders who took their turn in the limelight.

29-year-old Scott Gardiner, who in recent years has moved to Kirra on the southern Gold Coast after being based in Banora Point in Northern New South Wales for much of his earlier life, had to fight off a determined challenge from a young amateur, eleven years his junior, to eventually take the title. The victory may well be, however, the making of Gardiner who has long been considered to possess remarkable talent and natural golfing skills but has not always been as zeroed in on what he needs to do to capitalise on such gifts.

As he headed out today, Gardiner led by one shot over the talk of the week, Brad McIntosh, and by two over the equally talented amateur golfer Jason Day, who just yesterday turned eighteen and fired a nine under 62 on his birthday to put himself in with a chance for the final round.

Gardiner pulled his tee shot a little at the first and had to run a low shot up onto the back edge of the green from where he made par. McIntosh had driven flag high and when he chipped to two metres and holed it, he had joined Gardiner in the lead. That, however, would be the last time McIntosh would see his name atop the leaderboard as from that point on he all but self-destructed. His week had been one full of demands and to his credit he handled them well and in the end was perhaps more a case of him running out of steam than anything seriously untoward with his game.

Jason Day played with the two leaders and when he pulled his tee shot at the first into the hazard short and left of the green at the short par four, many felt that the youngster might succumb to the situation in which he found himself. He then produced a shot that would prove significant in what was to follow. The flag had again been cut tight into the back left of the green but Day was able to produce a master stroke that pitched just in the fringe and ran up to two metres from where he holed for par to not lose any ground to the third round leader. It was a shot in the arm and one that he could not have repeated if he tried all day. He did it when he needed to however and proved, if indeed it was necessary to do so, that he was not about to go away.

With McIntosh falling back with a bogey at the second after catching a flyer from the left hand rough, Gardiner had taken the lead again and one that he would retain or share for the rest of the day.

A shot that Gardiner will no doubt be still enthusing over will be his second to the par five fourth. He pulled his tee shot and his direct route to the green was blocked by trees, twenty metres ahead. There was a safe option of pitching out well short of the green and another more dangerous option but that would mean cutting a low shot around the trees with the prospect of finding water ahead and left if he did not get it turning as much as he hoped. With three iron in hand he chose the latter and hit a shot that perhaps did not receive the accolades it deserved. It was something special. It ran up to 6 metres from the hole from where he two putted for birdie. McIntosh also birdied but Gardiner had held a one shot lead. It was a shot that perhaps more than any other on this day highlighted the level of skill and imagination Gardiner has.

Gardiner would birdie again at the 6th to move two ahead but at the 8th, Day began a move that would see him eventually challenge for the lead. He holed a five metre birdie putt at the par three that saw him move back to 18 under, three behind Gardiner and two behind the local professional Nick Teague who was on a roll himself. Teague is in his final year as a trainee professional at Emerald Lakes and as word got around that he was making a move so did the gallery who began to spread between the final group and that ahead in which Teague was featuring.

Day birdied the 9th to move within two but at the 10th he made a clumsy and soft bogey which appeared at the time as if it had cost him any chance of catching Gardiner and Teague who were then three ahead again. .

Day missed a good opportunity at the 11th but at the 12th he hit the flag stick with his third shot approach at the par five to move within two. At the 13th he made a great par save but Gardiner holed a birdie putt from 9 metres to move two ahead of Teague and three ahead of Day.

The par five 14th was reachable for most today and Gardiner hit his 7 iron there ten metres left of the flag. Day was only just longer from the tee and hit an eight iron to five metres which he holed for eagle to grab one back after Gardiner’s birdie. The difference was now two with the momentum swinging in the favour of the amateur.

Day drove it a long way right at the 16th then hit a solid iron to the middle of the green some eight metres from the flag. When he holed that the difference was just one.

Day hit a shot to the long par three 17th that flirted with the front bunker but ran five metres directly behind the hole. He and many others though he had holed his putt but he had not and he still trailed Gardiner by one as they headed to the 72nd tee.

Both drove it well but Gardiner appeared to seal the tournament with a second from 125 metres to perhaps a metre.

Day was some ten metres right of the hole with his approach but his putt never looked like missing. It was something special given its timing and the metre putt that faced Gardiner no doubt became a lot longer in his mind. So long in fact that he missed it and so the two headed back to the 18th tee to try and break the deadlock.

At the first playoff hole both players hit brilliant approaches to two metres but both would miss. At the second playoff hole Day was short with his approach after Gardiner had safely found the green. Day was faced with an awkward pitch and the best he could do was some five metres from the hole. Gardiner now appeared to only need a two put which he did but somehow the youngster holed his putt and back they went.

This time Day had a chance to end it himself with a two metre putt but he could not and so they headed back for what would be the last time.

At the fourth extra hole the deadlock was finally broken when Gardiner found the green and Day was short again, although only just, this time in the front left bunker. He faced a difficult shot and when he hit it to ten metres he was not able to hole it and all Gardiner had to do was to two putt after his fine second came to rest two metres from the hole.

The quality of the play over the final nine holes by both Gardiner and Day was simply magnificent and was enjoyed by the largest crowd the event has seen.

Tony Carolan and Nick Teague tied for third although with Day being an amateur they share the second and third prizemoney cheques.

In addition to the $15,750 first prize Gardiner also won a Yamaha TT R230 Trail Bike.

Gardiner now heads to Florida for this coming week’s Stage Two qualifying for the USPGA Tour School. He does so with the knowledge that his first win of significance as a professional is behind him.

“I’m amazed,” said Gardiner after his win. “The last thing I was thinking about was winning a golf tournament this week I was just trying to get it so I had a little bit of control of the ball.”

He paid compliment to his playoff opponent who he described as a fine young player and a ’good kid’. Gardiner’s caddy, Dave McHugh, had convinced him to go back to an old method and so he asked Kevin Healey who works closely with Gary Edwin to look at the start of this week. “It seems to be working as I had great control of my hitting out there today,” he said.

“I knew that I was a good player and that when my game is on I can do well, so I was not too frustrated by not having won until now. I am now learning how to deal with the pressure.”

Day said later that he was elated to have done what he did. “I was just here to get experience and so am wrapped to have gone so close.”

One gets the feeling that it might not be the last time we see these two players going head to head in a golf tournament. They come with different approaches to the game but they both have the skills to advance to a very high level.