Stolz captures Queensland PGA
BY iseekgolf.com | Australasian PGA Tour | 2002 Queensland PGA | Wrap | 17 Jun 2002
Andre Stoltz has always appeared to me to be a much better player than his results would suggest. It is true that he has won the ANZ Tour Championship and went close to winning the ANZ Championship at The Lakes this year, which would have resulted in a place for him to play (European Tour). That has been half of his problem, namely, that he has been unable to get continuity of play throughout the year.
He has played in Japan on a limited basis and with limited success in the last two seasons and is likely to get a couple of starts there this year. He is also planning to attend their tour school later this year (listen to our interview with him) and if able to secure a good ranking will have a tour which may just suits his game.
His win here, over the less experienced Paul Sheehan, was impressive. It had to be, as Paul Sheehan, despite a quadruple bogey in his last round, kept niggling away and Stoltz needed to birdie four of the last five holes to hold Sheehan at bay.
Sheehan’s quadruple bogey came in unusual circumstances at the seventh hole of the final round when leading by three over Stoltz. He had taken a drop from the water behind the green, and eventually placed the ball as it kept rolling outside the required two club lengths. After placing the ball, he walked onto the green to survey the shot, only to find the ball had rolled off the spot where he had placed it and back into the hazard…..ouch! The difference was only two when they later reached the 16th (Stoltz ahead) and a door looked to open for Sheehan when Stoltz hit his second, from behind trees, into the water guarding the front right of the green. Stoltz however produced a beautiful pitch from 75 metres to within a foot to drop only one and then birdied the 17th and 18th.
The win moves Stoltz to twelfth on the current Australasian Tour money list with $160,000. Anthony Summers was third, with local Jon Riley fourth.
This was the last of the series of secondary events on the Australasian Tour, the next tournament will be the Victorian Open in October.
