Queenslanders fill top two places in New Zealand Open

It’s all smiles from Daniel Nisbet as he holds aloft the trophy for winning the New Zealand Open. PHOTO photosport.nz

Queenslanders finished first and second at the 99th New Zealand Open with Daniel Nisbet scoring an amazing nine-under par in the final round to snatch victory from Terry Pilkadaris.
The tournament looked Pilkadaris’ for the taking when he went into the last round with a five-shot lead but he had no answer to Nisbet’s stunning charge from the pack. Nisbet’s score of 62 on day four, included a red-hot final nine holes in which he had an eagle and four consecutive birdies.
In addition Nisbet’s four-round total of 258, which was 27 under par, broke the previous tournament record low score of 26 under set by Kel Nagle in 1964.
Nagle is not a name lost on Nisbet.
“We have some great family ties with Kel Nagle,’’ Nisbet revealed.
“One of my neighbours, who recently passed away, was a great friend with Kel and they kept him updated with my very junior golf. It is a surreal thing to be put up against him and beat his record when there is so much extended family history with him.”
Nisbet said he tried to play in a positive fashion throughout the tournament.
“I’ve been aggressive all week so I just wanted to stay aggressive and attack the pins and I just wanted to hole a few more putts.”

Daniel Hillier from Wellington in action at the New Zealand Open. He was the tournament’s top amateur and went into the final round in a share for seventh. PHOTO photosport.nz

Nisbet had eaten into Pilkadaris’ buffer over the first nine holes, but it looked as if he was starting to run out of time to haul him in.
An eagle on the 460m par five 10th hole for the second time in as many rounds helped Nisbet to a share of the lead, before a blistering four-birdie finish secured him the Brodie Breeze trophy and a rousing round of applause from the crowd surrounding Millbrook Resort’s peninsula 18th green.
Such applause has not been heard a lot in the decade since Nisbet won the Australian schoolboys’ title, with just one previous professional win to the 27-year-old’s name.
“I get that question a little bit — you know, where have you been for a few years?” he said.
“I played really well this week, I played really well two weeks prior as well. What this leads to in the future, I don’t know.
“My coach, Richard Woodhouse, my wife Ashley, she does all my training for me, all my programmes — we just want to keep doing the same thing, it’s working at the moment. Hopefully I’ll get a few more starts out of this win and try and replicate it.”
Nisbet collects $A191,000 for the biggest win of his career, as well as three guaranteed starts on the Japan Tour, the rest of this season and the next on the Asian Tour and through until the end of 2020 on the PGA Tour of Australasia.
Pilkadaris began the day hoping to break a 13-year winning drought which had included six runner-up finishes.
Having dined out on a birdie buffet for most of the week, he had to wait until the 11th hole before he recorded his first red number and then was helpless to stop Nisbet from running away from him over the final four holes, finishing in second place at 25 under.
Said Pilkadaris: “I didn’t make enough birdies, it’s as simple as that.
“I didn’t make any mistakes, just didn’t hole the 10 footers that I had been making.”
Pilkadaris’ cause was not helped by an upset stomach that had troubled him over the last two days.
“At the start of the week if you’d said I shoot 25 under, you’d be like ‘yeah I’ll take that’,’’ Pilkadaris added.

Daniel Nisbet from Queensland pumps his fist after sinking a birdie putt on the last hole at Millbrook to virtually assure him of victory in the New Zealand Open. PHOTO Photosport.nz

“It’s disappointing not to win, but 62 to beat you, it’s one of those things. On a five shot lead, you know with good weather conditions that someone is going to go low. I thought I plotted my way around the course really well, gave myself the chances, I just didn’t hole the putts.”
Asian Tour player Jarin Todd (United States) finished third on 22 under while rookie professional Nick Voke finished as the leading New Zealander, a final round 66 seeing him finish in a tie for seventh and a skydiving date with his caddy the following morning.
“It feels pretty special, it really does,’’ Voke said.
“This is my first time competing in Queenstown and it’s been a pretty good week.”
Voke, who was paired with Korean golfing star K J Choi through the first two rounds, had promised his caddy they would go skydiving if they managed a top 10 finish.
New Zealand’s Daniel Hillier claimed the Bledisloe Cup as the tournament’s leading amateur, finishing 16 under par in a share of 23rd place.
“Entering the week I was thinking it would be great to make the cut, and to be in the third-last group on the final day was amazing,” said the Wellingtonian.
“There are so many guys here who are renowned on tour and to be mixing it with them for four days is a real honour. Obviously to be in Queenstown, such a beautiful part of New Zealand, I was happy to create an experience here.”