Parsons pips Yang in Daikin Night Golf Shootout

BY Bruce Young | Von Nida Tour | 2007 Queensland PGA | General | 31 Oct 2007

The Daikin Night Golf Shootout for 2007 has been won by Gold Coast based New South Welshman, Lucas Parsons, who birdied the final hole at the Emerald Lakes Golf Club on the Gold Coast to edge out 18-year-old schoolgirl, Amy Yang. Yang who heads for the final stage of the USLPGA Tour School, played from the same tees as the men in the event making her performance even more meritorious.

Parsons has shown some improved form of late and his win provides a further boost for him leading into this week’s Greater Building Society Queensland PGA Championship on a golf course where he is retained in an ambassadorial role.

The event is played over 9 floodlit holes, although this year saw a new innovation where only four of those 9 holes were used in rotation, with those holes being played twice before returning to the 18th for a third time. The idea of this new move was to contain the event in closer proximity to the clubhouse and that, along with the introduction of pontoon, especially imported for the event, on a lake behind the 10th tee proved popular new features of this already popular event.

Another introduction that received positive reaction from the crowd was the wiring for sound of all ten players in addition to the on course commentator allowing more than 800 spectators the opportunity to listen in on conversations between players and caddies and between players.

The weather, which has proved so threatening in the Gold Coast area in recent days abated and the predicted storms never eventuated, the resultant balmy conditions perfect for golf.

The first player to be eliminated was Emerald Lakes employee, Nick Teague, who found the hazard at the back of the 10th hole and was on his way back to the clubhouse. Last year Teague eagled the first after a massive drive to 10 feet but there was no such fairytale this year.

2004 Greater Building Society Queensland PGA Champion, Kurt Barnes, pulled his tee shot at the par four second hole of the evening and was gone. At the par three third, Ossie Moore was short with his tee shot and was out of the event.

Euan Walters was next to go when he bogeyed the 4th hole of the evening while the in-form Andrew Bonhomme lasted only one more hole before he was eliminated at the 5th hole.

Peter Senior hit his best drive all night on the reachable par four 11th at Emerald lakes, the 6th of the evening, but made a mess of his approach from just off the green edge, leaving the event without its most credentialed player.

Cameron Percy, the defending Greater Building Society Champion, pulled his tee shot left at the par three 7th hole of the evening and was out at the same hole on which he had been eliminated in 2006. Then there were then three players, Parsons, Yang and Scott Draper remaining to play the final two holes.

Draper was short with his approach at the 8th hole (the par four 18th) and although it had been earlier announced that the player to be eliminated on this hole, in the event of a tie, would be decided, by a chip off, Draper appeared to misinterpret the rule and conceded the hole. Earlier in the evening, if more than one player was tied on the worst score, then the player eliminated would be the one the most distance from the hole in regulation.

Draper might well have lost in any case as Yang had hit a fine shot from the fairway bunker and had only 20 feet to negotiate for birdie while Draper was faced with an eight foot par saving putt. Parsons on the other hand found the green and safely made his four before Draper conceded.

Yang and Parsons headed back to the 18th tee to determine the winner and when both players found the fairway, things got even tighter. Yang was short with her approach with a 9 iron while Parsons hit a fine approach to 7 feet behind the hole. Yang pitched 14 feet past but to the urgings of the crowd holed her par saving putt leaving Parsons to hole his to win. He did and the $5,000 cheque was his.

Yang earned $2,200 and heads for the US in two weeks to prepare for final stage of USLPGA Tour School. She graduates from Robina State High School with her HSC on November 14th.

Once again the Shootout concept proved a winner and the added dimension of it being played under lights and the other innovations mentioned earlier added lustre and spectacle to the event.