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| November 26, 2001 | Monday | Ramazan 10, 1422 |
Appleby equals course record on way to title
GOLD COAST (Australia), Nov 25: Stuart Appleby equalled the course record to win the Australian Open golf championship on Sunday by three shots.
Appleby shot a final round 65 to finish with a total of 13-under-par 271 ahead of joint overnight leader Scott Laycock at the par-71 The Grand on Queensland’s Gold Coast.
South Africa’s Ernie Els, the world number four, closed with a 67 to finish third, a further two strokes behind, the only non-Australian in the top eight.
Appleby, who had won three times on the U.S. PGA Tour but only once on his home circuit, started the day level with Laycock but led by a shot when they turned for home.
Laycock drew level at the 12th and they were still all square with four holes to play when the 30-year-old Appleby made his move.
He went one in front when Laycock bogeyed the 15th then stretched his lead to three shots when he birdied the par three 16th and Laycock made another bogey.
Appleby moved four clear with a birdie at the 17th and sealed his victory despite missing an eight-metre putt for par on the last that would have given him a new course record.
“To say that was hard work is an understatement,” Appleby said after winning his first Australian Open.
“I knew Scotty was going to push me all the way, he was swinging it so smooth, and we were really fighting it hard.
“To have Scotty stall at the end was fortunate on my behalf, I really thought it was going to go down to the last hole. It was nerve-wracking all day, I was taking deep breaths from hole one.”
An emotional Appleby finished tied for second in the Australian Open at Royal Adelaide in 1998, just months after his wife Renay was killed in a freak traffic accident outside London’s Waterloo Station.
Renay’s parents joined Appleby’s mother and father in the gallery on Sunday to watch him win his first national championship and he later thanked them for their support.
“It’s been a really fun day, I guess the secret of winning is not knowing when you’ve won or (are) going to win a tournament,” Appleby said.
“You just sort of get out of your own way, but it’s a very hard thing to do.”
Els started the day three shots off the pace but quickly bowed out of contention with a poor start before a late flurry enable him to climb back to third.
The South African made scores of three on five straight holes from the 9th to the 14th, including an eagle, to finish two shots clear of Rod Pampling and four ahead of Peter Lonard.
Leading final scores (players Australian unless stated).
271 Stuart Appleby 69 70 67 65
274 Scott Laycock 69 66 71 68
276 Ernie Els (South Africa) 66 70 73 67
278 Rod Pampling 66 70 75 67
280 Peter Lonard 68 72 73 67
281 Brett Rumford 73 67 73 68, Geoff Ogilvy 71 65 74 71
282 Richard Green 72 73 71 66
283 Charles Howell III (US) 75 71 70 67, Craig Parry 72 72 72 67, Stephen Leaney 77 69 69 68
284 Adam Scott 73 70 71 70
285 Richard Lee (New Zealand) 73 72 69 71, Matthew Ecob 73 70 73 69, Scott Gardiner 69 75 71 70
286 Thomas Bjorn (Denmark) 76 67 70 73, Craig Jones 72 73 72 69, Paul Gow 73 72 71 70, Gavin Coles 74 72 70 70, Marcus Cain 69 69 77 71, Greg Chalmers 71 67 76 72.
TA SHEE (Taiwan): Leading final round scores at the Asian Open golf tournament at the par-72 Westin Resort course Sunday:
278 Jarmo Sandelin (Sweden) 72 66 72 68
279 Jose Maria Olazabal (Spain) 70 70 72 67, Thongchai Jaidee (Thailand) 74 70 68 67
281 Barry Lane (Britain) 70 73 69 69, Carl Pettersson (Sweden) 72 68 69 72
282 Michael Campbell (New Zealand) 72 73 71 66, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spain) 70 69 70 73
283 Vijay Singh (Fiji) 71 69 73 70, Brain Davis (Britain) 72 70 69 72, Stephen Dodd (Britain) 72 69 70 72
284 Charlie Wi (South Korea) 76 68 68 72, Rolf Muntz (Netherlands) 72 70 73 69, Stephen Scahill (New Zealand) 70 71 74 69
285 Steve Webster (Britain) 76 71 70 68
286 Ted Oh (South Korea) 72 73 72 69, Jyoti Randhawa (Indonesia) 71 75 71 69, Soren Kjeldsen (Denmark) 75 68 71 72—Reuters
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