WAITE HAPPY WITH PUTTING AFTER SHOOTING 69

Thursday, Jan 21, 2010

Grant Waite finished the first round of the New Zealand PGA Championship at Clearwater this morning a contented man. For one of only a few times in the last couple of years he completed a round without a three-putt.
 
“That was a bonus for me. I sunk a couple of nice birdie putts, my stroke was good throughout and there was only one putt that I didn’t feel comfortable over,” he said.
 
Waite is in the very early stages of trying to resurrect his golfing career, held back by indifferent putting, by changing his putting grip from right hand to left.
 
Waite started by birdieing his first hole (10th) and then “played nicely” from there on, picking up further birdies on 17, three and five, the only blemish a bogey on the difficult par 4, 14th for his 69.
 
Fellow New Zealander Steve Alker, playing in the same group as Waite, started slowly with a birdie and bogey on his first nine, followed by three birdies and a bogey to finish with a two under 70.

``I made no putts early on, but then started to get into the flow. The greens started to get a bit slower as the rain set in, so you just had to adjust. Tee to green was good and it was great to get back out on to the course,” he said. Alker only flew back into New Zealand from a snow bound England on Tuesday.
 
American Brian Smock had one of the more interesting rounds of the day. Having played lovely golf for 17 holes, he was six under and two shots clear of the field. He pulled his drive into the water hazard on the difficult 18th then took off his golf shoes contemplating getting into the lake to try and play a shot.
 
“In the end I just couldn’t get a swing. I took a drop and then mis-hit my next into the water.” He then took another drop, put his fifth into the bunker and two putted for an eight.
 
“I could be disappointed and loose my head, but I played well. I just have to look at the big picture. I still have 54 holes left and I probably left three or four putts out there. I just have to eliminate doubt from my mind on those difficult shots.”
 
Smock was very complimentary of the course, especially the design of the 18th and rated both the fairways and greens as “world class.”