Pike earns cult following
AARON Pike just wouldn’t go away.
The surprise leader after round one thanks to a course-record 64, Pike started the final round of the Australian Masters yesterday still firmly in the thick of things, two shots behind overnight leader Justin Rose.
Three bogeys through the middle part of his round pushed him back down the leaderboard, as many expected would happen in the heat of the final day on the big stage.
After all, Pike is only 21 and still an amateur.
Winning the Queensland amateur championship last year was good - and that was the pinnacle of Pike’s career before this week - but it does not compare to trying to land one of Australia’s most prestigious titles.
But the big unit from the Northern territory, who now bases himself in Brisbane, would not let it lie.
A magnificent eagle at the 14th yesterday, where he holed out from a greenside bunker, elevated him back to a share of the lead and, as the tournament moved into its closing stages, you wouldn’t have backed against him winning.
Anyone who took the 1000-1 odds at which Pike was quoted at the start of the week certainly got a good ride for their money, and Pike himself saw the chance of glory as he walked to the 15th tee.
“When I looked at the board and saw I was tied for the lead, definitely,” Pike said.
“I thought if I could come home with another birdie and pars I thought, it would be tough for Justin. All the pacesetting was on me and I definitely thought, yes, I could win this tournament.”
With Rose seemingly equally capable of mixing birdies with bogeys up ahead, Pike definitely had a chance, but his hopes were finally derailed with a three-putt bogey from long range on the 17th green.
His reception as he made his way up the 18th was rapturous. The cult following Pike, who does not look like a typical athlete as he weighs 115kg, has attracted at Huntingdale, grew in number each day as he continued to demonstrate he has plenty to offer.
That he stumbled with a bogey at the last will rankle.
His second shot found the green at the last, which played as the hardest hole on the course yesterday, but he was a long way from the hole. His putt was too firm, and it tumbled off the green and into a bunker. That he made an up-and-down save for bogey showed character.
“I wasn’t trying to ram it in,” he said.
“I was thinking I need to hole this and Justin needs to make bogey at the last to give me any chance to win this and when I hit it, I never thought I had hit it that hard.”
Pike finished fourth at nine-under par, just missing his goal of finishing in double figures below the card, after rounds of 64, 69, 72 and 74. The week has put him on quite a learning curve but it has not accelerated any decision to join the paid ranks.
“Maybe if I had won, it would have put some thoughts into my mind, but I’m not good enough to win so I don’t think I’m good enough to turn professional, because if you can’t win then what’s the point of being out there?” he said.
He intends to broaden his horizons on the amateur scene.
“I think a year of playing top-level golf, going across to America and playing in amateur tournaments and over in Britain as well. I think that experience will probably steady me and get me ready for it.
“But I’d have to say ask me again in a year’s time and I’ll answer your question then.”
