Charlotte Heath and Jediah Morgan – photo Kirsty Wrice Golf Australia

The Australian Amateur Golf Championship titles have been decided in hot and sultry conditions at the Royal Queensland Golf Club in Brisbane today with both the 36 hole men’s and women’s contests proving to be relatively one-sided affairs.

Given the severe storms that surrounded the South East Queensland region on Friday, there was concern about the potential for major delays in play over the weekend but the respective events were completed on schedule.

20-year old Queenslander, Jediah Morgan, was never behind in his match-up against Northern Ireland 17-year old, Tom McKibbin, eventually taking out the title 5 & 3.

England’s Charlotte Heath established a massive 8 up lead at lunch over Indonesian Ida Ayu Indira Melati Putri in the women’s final and although the 22-year old from Bali fought back in the afternoon to reduce the gap she would eventually go down to the West Yorkshire golfer, 7 & 6.

Heath is considered a bright young star in British women’s amateur circles while Putri has recently completed a degree while playing golf at Purdue University in Indiana.

Given the conditions, it was some surprise that Putri, so used to playing in the heat of her homeland, was so outplayed by Heath who had, of course, come out of an English winter to play in Australia.

Morgan is a member of the Royal Queensland Golf Club but hales from Hattonvale to the west of Brisbane where until recently his parents owned a nine-hole golf course. Morgan has been a member at Royal Queensland for three years and has been coached for the past six years by the Head Professional at Royal Queensland, Chris Gibson.

Morgan won the Asia Pacific Junior title in Taiwan last year and was named Queensland Junior Male Amateur in 2019.

This win, however, will elevate his status in the game and the world ranking to a significantly higher level and brings him into contention for a start at the Asia Pacific Amateur Championship later this year and guarantees a start at the Australian Open Championship later in 2020.

He was out of the blocks quickly in today’s final racing to an early 6 up lead, although McKibbin fought back to be just 4 down at lunch. Morgan won two holes early in the afternoon to be 6 up again but McKibbin kept the match alive when he reduced the margin to just 3 through 29 holes before Morgan steadied the ship and won comfortably.

McKibbin had been the 16^th in qualifying on Monday and Tuesday while Morgan was 28^th.

England claimed both the medallist honours and overall titles in the women’s contest, Emily Toy leading the 36-hole strokeplay field while her fellow English squad member, Heath, won the overall title.

There has been some suggestions that the Australian Amateur title might well be going to a 72 hole strokeplay event in the future.

In this writer’s eyes such a move would be a retrograde step for the iconic championship in Australian golf.

72 hole strokeplay amateur championships are a dime a dozen and not every event has to be seen as a means of preparing golfers for professional golf.

Let’s hope the rumours are just that.

 

 

 

 

 

New South Welshman, Travis Smyth, has continued his good recent form to be tied for 10^th and five shots from the leader and defending champion, Jazz Janewattananond, at the SMBC Singapore Open at the Serapong Course at the Sentosa Golf Club.

Smyth’s recent form includes a runner-up finish at the NSW Open and top twenties at the Australian PGA Championship and Hong Kong Open and a round of 68 on Friday  in the Asian / Japan Tour event continued that trend

Andrew Dodt is the next best of the Australasians in the field, the Queenslander just one behind Smyth and tied for 13^th.

Victorians, Matthew Griffin and David Micheluzzi. also made the cut in the US$1 million event.

The leader, Janewattananond of Thailand, led the Asian Tour money list by some margin in 2019 and is generally considered the brightest prospect amongst the emerging players in Asia.

The closing nine of 31 swept him to a one-shot lead over Joohyung Kim and Miguel Tabuena but just one-shot further back are heavyweights Matt Kuchar and Justin Rose.

“It makes me really happy to be back here to play in the course that I won in a year ago,” said Jazz.

“There are still two more days and anything can happen. There are a lot of good players here. Kuchar and Rose are still within reach and I will just stick to my plan and hopefully will take a win for the weekend.

“Today I struggled at the start, was a bit shaky but I found the groove after and managed to get it done quite right. I just try to hit it better than this over the weekend. I mean, yesterday I hit better than this.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can Elvis Smylie add this title to his Australian Junior win?

The quarter finalists in both the Men’s and Women’s Australian Amateur Championships have today been decided at the Royal Queensland Golf Club.

In the men’s division, Brisbane’s Lawry Flynn and England’s Ben Jones, who shared 4^th place in the qualifying on Monday and Tuesday, are the leading qualifiers still in the field for tomorrow’s quarter finals while in the women’s event, New South Wales’, Grace Kim, and Gold Coaster, Lion Higo, are the leading qualifiers still alive for the weekend.

The number one seed in the men’s field, Andre Lautee, was this afternoon knocked out by New Zealander James Hyde after defeating South Australian Jack Thompson in the morning round of 32.

In tomorrow’s match-ups, Jones will face Hyde, Queenslander, Louis Dobbelaar, takes on Ireland’s Tom McKibbin, Australian Junior Champion, Elvis Smylie, is up against fellow Queenslander, Jediah Morgan, and England’s, Charlie Strickland, will tackle South Australian, Billy Cawthorne.

Smylie is looking to complete a rare double of holding both the winning Australian Junior and the Australian Amateur titles at the same time.

Smylie won the Australian Junior title in April on the Gold Coast and performed with distinction at the Australian Open where he comfortably made the cut before finishing 33^rd.

Kim, from the Avondale Golf Club, will take on fellow Sydneysider, Kelsey Bennett, in tomorrow’s quarter finals of the Women’s Amateur Championship, Queenslander Cassie Porter will face Ida Ayu Indira Melati Putri of Indonesia, NSW’s Stephanie Kyriaocou is up against Minju Kim of South Korea and England’s Charlotte Heath plays Gold Coast’s Lion Higo.

The final for both the men’s and women’s events will be played over 36 holes on Sunday.

Grace Kim

 

 

Cameron Smith – photo Bruce Young

He might have missed out on a piece of Australian golfing history a few weeks ago, when trying for three Australian PGA Championships in succession, but today, Queenslander, Cameron Smith, created some of his own golfing history when winning his first individual title on the PGA Tour.

Cameron Smith won the Sony Open with a playoff victory at the first extra hole over American Brendan Steele at the Sony Open in Honolulu.

The victory was made even sweeter given, that through two holes on Thursday, Smith was 4 over par after a bogey, triple bogey to start his week.

In damp and windy conditions on the final day, Smith began the final round three shots behind Steele, the margin reduced to just one when Smith birdied the first hole and Steele bogeyed the 2nd.

By the time the pair had reached the 17^th  tee, however, Steele was two ahead but a missed green at the par three led to a bogey and he stood on the 18^th tee just one ahead of Smith, Webb Simpson and Ryan Palmer who were playing in the group ahead.

When Palmer lost a ball at the last and dropped a shot and Simpson was unable to birdie the par five, the stage was left to Smith and Steele to determine the winner.

Both found the fairway from the tee but with the green within reach both would miss their target, Smith finding the front left bunker and Steele pull hooking a driving iron well left of the green.

Steele secured a drop from the stands between he and the flag and pitched to 25 feet. Smith on the other hand hit a beautiful bunker shot from 30 yards to 8 feet and when Steele missed his birdie attempt Smith made no mistake and so it was into extra time.

The 10^th was the hole to decide the winner and, although Smith missed the fairway, he hit a superb pitch from 110 yards to 15 feet. Steele had found the fairway but from shorter range made a mistake in judgement and flew the green.

He was unable to get up and down and so all Smith need to do was 2 putt from 15 feet which he was able to do.

Smith earns US$1.18 million for his win and moves to 31^st in the world ranking, still below his previous best of 24^th earlier in 2019 but a victory that will assist in his moving considerably higher given the knowledge he has that he can win on the PGA Tour.

“I didn’t feel like I played particularly well,” said Smith. “I just made the putts that I had to make, and you know, those up and downs to kind of keep the momentum going a little bit I managed to get up and down. It was a struggle all day, though. The conditions were wet and a little bit windy this morning.”

Cameron Davis made it a good week for yet another former Australian Amateur Champion when he recorded his best PGA Tour finish when sharing 9th place in the event and earning his biggest cheque in tournament golf (US$179,000)

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