Leading Australasians miss out on US Amateur
IN: News | by Bruce Young | 08 Aug 2002
The US Amateur Chanpionship, to be played at Oakland Hills in Michigan from August 19th, will be missing several leading Australasians following the final qualifying at venues around the country this past week.
The two leading ranked Australians Andrew Buckle and Simon Nash missed as did New Zealanders Tim Wilkinson and Eddie Lee. New South Wales golfer Richard Swift was the leading qualifier at his venue in Maryland tying for first with number two ranked US Amateur Brian Quackenbush and gaining one of only three spots available there. He along with Geoff Lound, will be the only two Australians to take their place in the field. Lound qualified at his venue in Illinois.
Buckle has proabably come to the end of his teether after three months on the road and it may be that he is looking forward to a break before he heads to Malaysia later this year to represent Australia in the World Teams event there. Another Australian representative, Adam Groom, chose not to play the qualifying instead heading for home
New Zealander Brad Heaven, who did so well last week at the Western Amateur making it through to the matchplay, will have an anxious wait as he has an alternate spot.
A reflection on the strength of player having to go through the qualifying process is that even last week's Western Amateur champion John Klauk was forced to do so. He made it .
