David Diaz leads Nationwide event
Colin Wilson
late-30s. He does have a win on the Australasian Tour, the Coolum
Classic in 1997, but has been in the wilderness recently and was close
to giving the game away because he has been not playing well. I guess he
fitted the definition of "journeyman".
Now he seems to have found something, and he's leading the Nationwide
Tour NZ PGA Championship after the second round!
I played in Diaz's group in a pro-am at Bacchus Marsh two years ago
(current Asian Tour pro Pat Giles was also in our group, although an
amateur at the time).
Here's what I wrote about Diaz then:
"David Diaz is one heck of a golfer. He easily won the Pro-Am with a
68 and showed himself to be the quality professional in the field. No
other pro broke 70. He only bogeyed one hole all day -- a short lip-out
putt -- and scored five birdies, two by draining long putts. He is also
an angry ant with a temper problem. For example, on the second last hole
he chipped too long, about 15 feet past the hole, and promptly violently
smashed his wedge around a nearby post. Problem is he then drained the
putt for birdie, so it just re-inforced his behaviour as being
successful. There were several other "f*#$s" and associated verbiage.
Maybe it's the Latino temperament or something, but he was like a
volcano ready to erupt, which he did."
Now if Diaz just happened to win the NZ PGA, it's the second biggest
purse on the Nationwide (after the US$771,000 of the Jacobs Creek Open
last week) ... maybe US$140,000 for the winner. Provided he went to play
in the USA for the rest of the season, that would put him in pretty good
stead to finish in the Top 20 or so on the Nationwide money list.
Could it really happen? Maybe still unlikely at the moment, but the idea
of Diaz using this event as a springboard to the USPGA Tour is not
beyond the realms of possibility.
However Pat Perez's temper might also have some strong competition.
--
Cheers
Colin Wilson
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david s-a
"Colin Wilson" <pub...@kyneton.net.au> wrote in message
news:c1mk92$1l6cqk$1...@ID-167746.news.uni-berlin.de...
> David Diaz is a pro from my home state of Victoria, aged in his
> late-30s. He does have a win on the Australasian Tour, the Coolum
> Classic in 1997, but has been in the wilderness recently and was close
> to giving the game away because he has been not playing well. I guess he
> fitted the definition of "journeyman".
>
> Now he seems to have found something, and he's leading the Nationwide
> Tour NZ PGA Championship after the second round!
I have played with David twice in pro-ams, and I have been officiating at many tournaments where he
has been in the field. My experience is that he is definitely one of the key players on the Oz Tour,
and this year has been close to top ten finishers in almost every tournament. He played in the same
group as my friend's son in the Victorian PGA at Kew some months ago, where he put up a creditable
performance. Coincidentally, Ewan Walters was in the same group...and said friend's son, Todd
Morgan, was outplaying them both, especially in driving distances (Ewan isn't all that long......but
David is solid and consistent.) He was also in the group I 'walked' with as accompanying rules
official on the final day of the recent Victorian Open, the other two being David Mackenzie and Adam
Le Vesconte. On that occasion he finished -2 for the day, and -5 for the whole comp....a creditable
top ten finish. (Adam finished square, -3 for the comp. and David Mack. finished +4 and +1 for the
comp.).
David has been a top pro-am competitor for many years, having played #1 for Bachus Marsh Pennant
team as an amateur. I think he has now 'paid his dues' and is ready for the big time! (He does have
a 'language' problem tho!)
cheers
david