Three on 67 share lead
The National, Friday 26th April 2013
By GABRIEL LAHOC
THE Coca-Cola Morobe Open golf tournament is a tight event as seen in yesterday’s play with the top three golfers, Brett Rankin, Pieter Zwart, Scott Priest, all tied at 67.
Justin Maker, the Queensland tournament coordinator, who stood in for the Morobe Open tournament director Peter Boyd, confirmed yesterday afternoon the next seven player were tied on the same score.
The professionals event, which teed off in the morning, got off to a shaky start when Lae police exchanged gun shots with suspected criminal elements in a car chase along the Bumbu road towards 1-Mile.
While the weather in the morning was sunny, the day surprisingly ended in wet conditions following an afternoon downpour.
One of the highlights of the day was the father and son team in 19-year-old Filipino professional Brian Gomez, who had his father, Armat Mata as hios caddy.
Gomez, who started playing golf in Port Moresby, left his parents behind for the Filipino capital of Manila in 2005 to pursue and better his golf and turned professional last month.
He returned to PNG this time as a professional golfer in his first tournament in the Coca-Cola Morobe Open because dad Armat works and lives in Lae and who readily agreed to become his caddy in the tournament.