Wilkinson's in high spirits for Aussie events

GOLF

Tim Wilkinson will go into the next two Australasian PGA events with renewed vigour after his exploits at Melbourne.

The Manawatu professional hadn't played a round of golf in six months before he went to Kingston Heath and yet he finished in a tie there for 17th.

He is back for two weeks break in Palmerston North, practising before heading to Sydney for the Australian Open, his thumb getting better by the day.

Wilkinson went to the Australian Masters last week with little idea of how he would fare, not having swung a driver since before his thumb operation.

"If you had told me at the start of the week that I would finish 17th I would've been really happy," he said. "It was quite good to be out playing.

"You don't know quite what to expect until you get out and play."

But Wilkinson isn't New Zealand's only USPGA Tour pro for nothing. At one stage in the final round he was within two shots of leader Tiger Woods and was one of only four Kiwis to make the halfway cut.

He finished as the leading New Zealander by four shots, from Michael Long.

Wilkinson's final round of 76 pushed him out of the top 10 and he put the bogeys down to his layoff and uncertainty about what club to hit off the tees.

"I had a couple of bad club selections on Sunday," he said. "I seemed to be in between clubs a lot.

"I didn't get on the golf course until the Tuesday and it was my first time on a course since June. In my practice round I hit it pretty solidly."

After seeing the sellout crowds cramming Kingston Heath, Wilkinson said paying Woods his $3.83 million fee was justified.

"There was a great atmosphere for the tournament. It's amazing how he can bring so many people to a tournament. I think it was worth paying him that money."

Wilkinson and his playing partner, American Jason Dufner, were caught up in the huge galleries on Sunday. Wilkinson remembers playing in front of such masses only at the Players Championship, on his home Sawgrass course in Florida, and at the Tiger Woods New Zealand Open at Paraparaumu Beach in 2002.

Kingston Heath brought different challenges to American courses.

"The green speeds were very similar but it is the firmness of the greens. Hitting into them they don't spin and there's not the same coverage of grass."

Wilkinson played well out of the sand-belt bunkers even if the sand is different and there's few uphill bunker shots, the ball always rolling to a flat lie and less spin being generated out of them.

Wilkinson will start at the Australian Open on December 3 on the clifftop New South Wales Golf Club course and the following week at Coolum in Queensland.

- © Fairfax NZ News