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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