Sport

Johnson has the nerves of an old pro

GOLF/ANZ Championship: "Not everyone," said the winner, a tad defensively, "has to look like Ernie Els or Tiger Woods

By David Davies
Mon Feb 11 2002 - 00:00

GOLF/ANZ Championship: "Not everyone," said the winner, a tad defensively, "has to look like Ernie Els or Tiger Woods."The words came from Richard Johnson, who looks nothing like either but had just won, with impressive impassivity, the ANZ Championship over The Lakes course yesterday.

Johnson, a 25-year-old Swede, looks nothing like a Swede either, being on the small side of diminutive and ginger-haired to boot. He weighs just under 10st and stands no more than 5ft 7in.

But this was a day when appearances did not matter, and for a player ranked 369th in the world and 112th in Europe he dealt with the pressures of winning as if he had been doing it all his career.

Instead, it was his first professional victory and as this event was played to a modified stableford format it qualifies him for the only other such tournament in the world, The International, in Denver, Colorado.

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He won £118,676 yesterday and could win another £500,000 if successful in America.

Johnson had to contend with the challenge of Craig Parry, who only a month ago was doing a Tiger-taming act by beating Woods in the New Zealand Open.

But the round turned on the long 14th, where Johnson had the luck a winner needs, and Parry did not. The Swede struggled throughout the hole and then knocked in a 20-foot birdie putt, whereas Parry hit three good shots to three feet, and then missed.

Nick Dougherty won the battle between three of the world's most promising players. The 22-year-old American contender, Bryce Molder, failed to make the cut; Aaron Baddeley, at 21 already twice a winner of the Australian Open, gathered only 25 points in total while the 19-year-old Dougherty had a final-round 66, worth 14 points for a total of 34.

That hurtled him up the leader board into a 14th-place finish, but it was not good enough to get him automatically into the next event, the European Tour co-sanctioned Caltex Singapore Masters, in two weeks. He is 11th in line for a place in Singapore.

"It's doing my head in," said Dougherty yesterday, "not playing in weeks when there's a tournament I want to play in."

It hurts the worse because the week before the Heineken he was playing well enough to record his best finish as a professional, eighth in the Johnnie Walker Classic, and has played well again this last week.

Dougherty set a target of "at least 14 points" for yesterday's round, and matched it exactly. It could have been better, too, given that he drove the 339-yard 13th hole and then three-putted, missed a birdie putt of six feet at the 16th and failed to birdie the long 17th.

He now has a week off and intends to explore the Sydney beaches.

"There's 10 of us," he said, "in two apartments. It could be the end of my career."

Guardian Service

LEADING FINAL TOTALS (at The Lakes, Sydney, Aus. Brit unless stated, par 73): (eagles = 5pts, birdies = 2, par = 0, bogey = minus 1, double bogey or worse = minus 3) 46 - R Johnson (Swe) 3 16 16 11 (£118,676) 44 - S Laycock (Aus) 11 16 7 10, C Parry (Aus) 10 18 9 7 (£55,876 each) 43 - A Stolz (Aus) 11 19 9 4 (£31,646) 39 - S Gallacher 10 12 13 4 (£26,372) 38 - I Garbutt 6 6 7 19 (£23,735) 37 - J Lomas 20 1 9 7 (£21,097) 36 - T Levet (Fra) 8 4 10 14, G Turner (Nzl) 10 8 12 6, T Immelman (Rsa) 10 19 3 4 35 - G Ogilvy (Aus) 7 16 1 11, N Fasth (Swe) 3 11 10 11, N O'Hern (Aus) 4 13 15 3 34 - N Dougherty 7 8 5 14, P Senior (Aus) 8 6 8 12, J-F Remesy (Fra) 11 6 9 8, A Hansen (Den) 9 11 7 7, J Bickerton 5 13 11 5 33 - D Howell 10 3 4 16, F Jacobson (Swe) 3 9 7 14, A Coltart 5 11 4 13, P Sjoland (Swe) 11 10 0 12, M Gronberg (Swe) 9 13 1 10, B Andrews (Aus) 8 8 7 10 32 - C Hanell (Swe) 9 5 4 14, M Brier (Aut) 4 10 4 14, D Bransdon (Aus) 3 13 5 11, S Struver (Ger) 7 4 12 9, S Alker (Nzl) 7 13 4 8, J Skold (Swe) 5 11 8 8, A Painter (Aus) 4 13 9 6, D Lynn 12 7 11 2 31 - M Norgren (Swe) 11 3 10 7, G Havret (Fra) 5 19 1 6, M Foster 2 10 14 5, C Rodiles (Spa) 10 15 5 1 30 - B Jones (Aus) 5 6 6 13, M Pilkington 3 8 8 11, D Smail (Nzl) 11 7 4 8, C Pettersson (Swe) 13 6 6 5 29 - J Hugo (Rsa) 3 9 8 9, B Kennedy (Aus) -2 15 8 8, M Cort 7 10 10 2. 28- N Green (Aus) -1 12 6 11, G Coles (Aus) 7 9 2 10, A Cejka (Ger) 7 9 2 10, G Orr 10 5 8 5, R Jacquelin (Fra) 15 4 6 3, P O'Malley (Aus) 9 9 15 -5.