The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 28

SPORTING LIFE 27 ht "fibneg fRoriuwj JJeralb MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1999 www.smh.com.au How a two-times US Masters champion left his mark and $112,500 on the 18th 1 I to confirm a one-stroke penalty on '''--IV Bernhard Langer confers with Tour director of operations Trevor Herden the 18th green, costing him the chance of forcing a play-off. Photographs by CRAIG GOLDING hw lI Collapse complete GOLF PETER STONE Not even Agatha Christie could have conceived the subplots and red herrings which were thrust the way of the final round of the SI million Greg Norman Holden International at The Lakes yesterday before New Zealander Michael Long triumphed in the most bizarre circumstances. To cut straight to the denouement, twice US Masters champion Bernhard Langer came to the final hole, a par three of 178 metres, needing par to win by a shot from the waiting Long. And the German thought he had hit the perfect shot a low three iron but the end result was far from perfect, as it drifted into a bunker. In golfing parlance, it was a fried-egg lie, the ball nestled in its own indentation in the sand.

Langer's blast-out ran through the green and he then chipped back to around five metres. Instant victory was gone, but a play-off was still possible if he holed the putt. Langer picked up and studied the ball, then began the business of replacing it. Then, to the bewilderment of Hackers RICHARD HINDS all boss the known SI relate else to a just the were the Not but as He Long Island his What mattered most was that he now believes his game is back to the stage it was in 1995 when he led the British Open by two shots into the final round, only to be left one stroke outside the play-off won by John Daly over Italian Costantino Rocca. Langer has been around long enough not to spend too much time dwelling on the immediate past.

"I just picked the marker up and them both ball and marker in my hand. 1 was too much focused. I knew. People in the stands didn't," he said. His error aside, he was totally at ease with his play on the day but, as tournament host Greg Norman has so often found, fate has its ways.

"Too many bad breaks. I felt I played all right and I shot 80. It could have been 73. I have nothing to be ashamed of the way I played," the German said. The golf caravan now moves to Melbourne for the Australian Masters, beginning on Thursday.

Long and Campbell will be missing, so too Langer, who was never contracted to play Hun-tingdale anyway. The Kiwis have chosen to chase the Euro in the Dubai Desert Classic on the European Tour, which clashes with the Masters. rules and trying to get an unfair advantage. No-one is out there trying to do the dirty on you." It was the New Zealander's second Australasian Tour victory the first was the NZ Open in 1996 and he is now second on the 1998-99 money list with just over SI 00,000 behind West Australian Jarrod Moseley, who yesterday finished tied 24th. Campbell has a cheque for $102,000 in his pocket simply because you never get anywhere unless you ask.

Back in December he spotted Frank Williams, boss of Norman's Great White Shark Enterprises business in Australia, near the practice putting green during the Australian Open at Royal Adelaide. "Frank, could I have an invite to the Greg Norman event?" Campbell asked. "Of course, Michael. Just send a fax to my office confirming this conversation," Williams replied. Campbell was delighted, then Williams suggested a putting competition for $50.

"Certainly," said Campbell, and two comps later he departed with $100 to add to his invitation. Yesterday, the cash Campbell had won was not important. day just one adrift of Langer, went out in 43, seven over the card, and all praise to him for the manner in which he retained his composure when his game was tearing at the seams. At the turn, he knew he was left playing only for the minor cash, and birdies at the 1 1th and 12th helped his cause. He finished with a seven-over 80 and a cheque for $41,333.

A southerly blew a fury at The Lakes yesterday, arriving late in the morning, and those familiar with the conditions knew then it would be a battle for survival. Just one player, Japan's Shi-geki Maruyama, broke 70. He hit off in the fourth group of the day and was spared much of the brutish wind to shoot a six-under 67, which boosted him from his tied 54th spot overnight to a share of ninth. Long was stunned by his victory. More so by the fact that he'd actually won the tournament before he thought he had.

Of Langer's action, and his own two years ago for that matter, he said: "We're all gentlemen out there and it's one of those things that I'm really proud of in golf. You know that someone's not out there trying to cheat the around, he signalled for rules Trevor Herden to come onto green. There was brief discussion and Herden departed. Long held his breath as Langer putted, and the tournament was the Kiwi's as the ball slipped past the hole. Not to Long was that the 80,000 winner's cheque was already his.

In the traditions of golf, something Long himself can to very easily, Langer owned up to something no-one knew. Put his action down split-second aberration, for Langer had lifted his marker a centimetre or two above ground and suddenly he realised both ball and marker in his hand. Langer knew it, and Herden confirmed it It was a one-shot penalty, and Langer walked from green with a triple-bogey six. only had he lost first money, the second prize of $102,000 he had now dropped behind another Kiwi, Michael Campbell. settled for $67,500 instead.

The twist of it all was that had called a penalty on himself two years ago in the Johnnie Walker Classic at Hope on the Gold Coast when ball moved on the putting $1 million Greg Norman Holden International At The Lakes GC (par 73) 283: Long (NZ) 73 72 66 72 284: Campbell (NZ) 67 72 71 74 285: Langer (Ger) 71 65 69 80 286: Pampling (Qld) 70 74 70 7070 72 74, A Painter (NSW) 66 68 72 80 287: Senior (Qld) 67 74 71 75 288: Lonard (NSW) 79 69 68 72 289: Maruyama (Jpn) 69 78 75 7171 75, JLGuepy(Fra)71747074 290: McWhinney (Qld) 74 73 73 717173, Russell (Scot) 70 73 71 76. 74 72 71 75, Felton (WA-a) 72 70 74 76, Parsons (NSW) 74 72 72 74, GMoorhead(NZ)72 766876 bell, with Langer a further shot back in third. Tied for fourth on 286 were Rod Pampling, Peter O'Malley and Anthony Painter. At one stage, Langer held a five-shot lead but, just as Els last week managed to conjure defeat from victory after holding a six-shot advantage, the German did the same. Painter, who had started the Champion Michael Long throws his ball didn't have a card, were numerous.

He received invitations to 1 1 tournaments on the strength of it, which enabled him to win enough cash to secure a card for 1998. The bare bones of his victory yesterday were that, with rounds of 73-72-66-72 for a nine-under tally of 283, Long was the winner by one shot from Camp- surface, which not even his playing partner, South African Ernie Els, noticed. It cost Long the chance of a play-off with Els, but the New Zealander won worldwide praise for his action. It led to him receiving the Pringle Fair Play Award for world sport, and the doors that then opened to him on the European Tour, for which he rejoice as the pros look like bozos Playing at Pebble Beach is a no to the crowd. wind situation about VA shots higher on Saturday: playing the third round at Pebble was about a 5-shot disadvantage.

Only one player shot par at Pebble: Paul Stankowski had a 72. Thirty-two of the 60 pros who played Pebble Beach shot at least 80. Among the most abject sufferers were Jay Delsing, who made a 10 on No 18 on his way to a 13-over 85, and Wayne Levi, who had just one three on his card, wrote down 44 on each side and added up the thing to a 16-over 88. David Duval, who made 76 at Pebble, said: "I can think of better things to do on a day like this." So could Tiger Woods (78), who still made the cut at three-over 219. Los Angeles Times PAGE 36: Huxley's America.

double bogey, not the bogey he needed to tie Long. "I don't know why 1 did it, I didn't do it on purpose," Langer said, trying to explain a split-second of lunacy. "I just did it." Yet, despite Langer's high-quality contention, the clear highlight as the appearance of tournament host and defending champion Greg Norman, ho provided 15 minutes worth of expert commentary earing what appeared to be some sort of long-sleeved safari suit (a tribute, perhaps, to the late Don Dunstan). Norman's stint behind the microphone probably won't make the BBC's Peter Allis or even Channel 7's Jack New ton worry about their day jobs. But, between some less insightful stuff always be another tournament next yada, yada, yada) the Shark made one shrewd observation: "The golf course is not playing straight downwind or straight into the ind, so it makes it difficult." In those circumstances, the best way to go forward was to stand still, which is not easy when you're trying to keep your sponsor's visor on your head.

Well-struck three irons balloon like lob wedges, and a putt that required a hammer blow yesterday barely requires a mosquito's breath today. Which is why the smart money should have been on the New Zealand-ers Long and Campbell. "1 was born in the wind," said Campbell, who hails from near Wellington here there is a station called Radio WIND. On the other hand, having seen good shots blown into bunkers and well-struck putts skim past the edge of the hole, Langer seemed to have contracted some sort of wind-born mental paralysis by the final green. There had been moments in the past, Long said, when he could not see his marker on the green and thought for a split-second that he had failed to mark his ball.

He even had the occasional nightmare about not being able to hit the ball over a ater hazard. But, no, he had never committed a faux pas to match Langer's. But yesterday at The Lakes, a brain-dead penalty seemed an appropriate way to polish off a good day's entertainment. For those with a taste for vengeance, there is only one thing better than atching some of the orld's best players trying to win a golf tournament -w atching them trying not to lose. For the greenside ghouls assembled at The Lakes yesterday, the conditions ere perfect: a stiff southeasterly breeze, lots of water, some sweaty-palmed professionals and a usually unflappable German revealing an unmistakable flappability.

Yet even before Bernhard Langer had lost the tournament by performing the golfing equivalent of hit-wicket picking up his ball marker on the 18th green without first replacing his ball those elements had helped to provide a most entertaining afternoon for those of us ho can't hit a three iron past the ladies' tee and fail to see why anyone should. A few edited bloopers from yesterday's play: Gary Player, inner of nine majors, threw himself into a three wood off the tee at the 178-metre, par-three 18th and finished 35m short of the green. OK, Player is 63, but at some public courses that would be a pants-down offence. Michael Campbell tumbled onto his backside after smashing a ball out of long rough. The ball finished close enough to the hole for Campbell to save par, and the New Zealander compiled a very respectable 74 to fin- ish second.

But still, ha! Peter Lonard, who had somehow recovered from an opening round of 79 (six over) to be eight under after 14 2 ball had dimpled disaster written on it After 54 holes, your leader by one shot is Payne Stewart, who birdied two of the last three holes at Spyglass to finish off a round of 73 worth a three-round total of 10-under 206. "1 know I'm glad I wasn't at Pebble today," Stewart said. "Those holes on the ocean would have been vicious." Yes, Payne, they were. Second is Lickliter, of Ohio, where winds that blow this hard are called tornadoes. Lickliter turned in a 71 at Spyglass, which is a lot easier to play in the wind because its trees block the gusts.

Pebble has nothing to protect it from the wind except seagulls. Pebble played an average of seven shots higher in the third round (79.2) than it did the first two days (722), while Spyglass and Poppy Hills averaged only slapped his bunker shot at the last from a difficult lie clean over the green and had to make a four-metre putt for bogey, although he didn't really mind. So bizarre was yesterday's play that the champion's only thought as he stood over the vital putt was that it would be nice not to make a double bogey -just for "personal Amid all this mayhem, it was hardly surprising the tournament was lost on the call of a PGA Tour official, ho confirmed that Langer's moment of brain freeze as worth a one-shot penalty and his putt on the last green would be for a US PGA TOUR THOMAS BONK Pebble Beach, California: So how windy was it on Saturday at Pebble Beach? Golf balls travelled sideways, Andy Garcia played in a beret he must have borrowed from Monica Lewinsky, Jack Lemmon nearly blew over on the 17th tee and the only sensible game plan was the one Frank Lickliter came up with for Sunday's last round of the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. "Plav just one shot at a time and try to keep it on the planet," he said. This planet, preferably.

There was only a little rain, but a whole lot of wind for the third round, especially at the Pebble Beach layout, where winds of nearly 80kmh meant that each golf holes yesterday and within sight of the lead, then dropped four shots on the last four holes to sink to eighth place. was his succinct description when asked about his mood. I Anthony Painter, who started the last day a shot behind Langer, dropped nine shots in the first 10 holes, including a triple-bogey seven at the third. When he was asked about his chances on Saturday, Painter had said he doubted he could in. His front nine yesterday would not have done any damage in a B-grade chook run.

Eventual winner Michael Long itini'ii-ifni'ii'irr.