Golf: McCall takes Taieri Classic

Eventual winner Vaughan McCall, of Gore, putts during the Taieri Classic yesterday. Photo by Jane...
Eventual winner Vaughan McCall, of Gore, putts during the Taieri Classic yesterday. Photo by Jane Dawber.
Vaughan McCall (Gore) finished seven under par over three rounds to win the Taieri Golf Classic which was played over 54 holes on the Taieri course during the weekend.

It is the New Zealand No1 golfer's second success in Otago tournaments this year after he also won the Otago matchplay title at Balmacewen during Labour Weekend.

Incessant rain led to the cancellation of the Saturday afternoon round but yesterday, despite water lying in several places, the course was very playable, as the sub-par rounds indicated.

This was surprising, since the main street in Mosgiel was flooded on Saturday afternoon.

There were six sub-par rounds on Saturday morning, with McCall taking the early lead with a five-under-par 67.

He was followed by Matt Tautari (Queens Park) on 68, Jeremy Hall (Greenacres) and Michael Smith (Otago) on 70, while Mark Collie (Chisholm Park) and Brent McEwan (St Clair) were one under on 71.

But after yesterday morning's round the contest came down to a two-horse race, with McCall and McEwan carding 68, giving McCall a four-shot lead.

McCall went out of bounds on the third hole of the final round and for most of the homeward nine he led McEwan by either one or two shots.

McEwan did his utmost to make up the deficit but did not hole many putts, scoring a one-under-par 71.

This gave him second place, a single shot behind McCall, while Hall and Kayne Wardell (Allan Grange) finished strongly to tie for third.

Hall finished with a four-under 68, while Wardell was the most consistent golfer of the tournament with rounds of 73, 72 and 71.

 

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