SPECTACULAR OPEN WIN BY NEWDICK

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31002, 7 March 1966, Page 3

SPECTACULAR OPEN WIN BY NEWDICK

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright) SINGAPORE. The New Zealand professional golfer, Ross Newdick, sank a 17-foot putt to defeat Formosa’s Lu Liang Huan and Britain’s George Will in a sudden death play-off for the 1966 Singapore Open golf championship yesterday.

Newdick’s victory came on the second hole after he, Lu and Will finished the regular four rounds of play each with par 284. The three-way tie followed the collapse of the earlier leaders, Ben Arda of the Philippines and Hideyo Sugimoto (Japan). Arda ended up in fourth place with Vic Allin at 285, while Sugimoto was bunched in a four-way tie for eighth at 287. The defending champion Frank Phillips (Australia) and Isao Katsumata (Japan) shared sixth place, each with 286. Newdick, who shot a two-under-par 34-35 —69 in his final round, pocketed 1767 dollars in prize money, while Lu and

Wiill divided second and third place prizes totalling 1866 dollars. The gallery of 5000, which had swarmed over the 6584yard course for the final, gasped as Newdick missed an 18in putt on the first hole. The three shared the hole with par fours. Newdick drove 190 yards to land on the green for the second hole. The crowd gasped again as he sank his long putt for a birdie two to edge out his rivals, who were already lying two each. Newdick’s winning putt almost matched a 20-footer Lu had to sink on the 18th hole of the fourth round for his regulation-play 284. The tall, 28-year-old New Zealander started the final round four strokes behind Arda and Sugimoto, and said later, “I was not surprised to

learn I had a chance to tie for a sudden death play-off if I hit a birdie on the 18th.” He did just that, blasting his second shot out of a bunker to within eight feet of the cup, and then sinking his putt. Will, who teamed up in 1965 with Dave Thomas to defeat Arnold Palmer and Dave Marr of the United States in a Ryder Cup foursome competition, blasted his way to the front ranks yesterday with a brilliant 32-34—66. This tied the two-year-old record set by Phillips for the Singapore Island Country Club’s Bukit championship course. The feat earned Will an additional 166 dollars for the lowest score of the day. Will was surprised at his record-tying 66 because “the heat nearly had me on my knees—it was really tough.”