Lyle, Nitties, Sim head Interstate Teams Matches

BY iseekgolf.com | Australian Mens Amateur Tour | 2004 Australian Interstate Teams Matches | General | 07 Sep 2004

Australian team members Jarrod Lyle (Victoria), James Nitties (New South Wales), and Michael Sim (Western Australia), are likely to lead the challenges of their respective states when the Centenary Interstate Teams Matches gets underway at Brisbane’s Royal Queensland Golf Club next Monday. The event is a round robin match play tournament with each Australian state represented. A contest between two teams is comprised by four morning foursomes matches and seven afternoon singles matches. Each team is comprised by eight players. The Centenary Interstate Teams Matches will be played from 13-17 September.

Of Australia’s current crop of highly talented amateurs, Nitties’ star is burning the brightest. Impressive mentally, the 21 year-old Novocastrian AIS graduate, from Charlestown Golf Club, has twice been the leading amateur at the Australian Open, and was last year’s New Zealand Amateur champion. Perhaps his most noteworthy performance to date however was in last year’s Australian Masters at Huntingdale where he played with the event’s winner, Robert Allenby, in the final pairing on the last day. In contention until the final few holes, the performance stamped him both as a player of genuine quality, and also promoted his name into the golf media’s mainstream.

Both Lyle and Sim are also players with a large amount of talent.

Lyle, 23, from Shepparton Golf Club, will lead Victoria’s attempt to defend the title it won on home soil at Portsea last year, he has won the past two Lake Macquarie Amateur Championships and was the runner-up in this year’s Australian Amateur Championship at Royal Adelaide to Victorian teammate, Andrew Martin. 19-year-old Sim (also an AIS graduate), from Joondalup Country Club in Perth, won this year’s Riversdale Cup, and in 2002 won his state Amateur title and was the runner-up in the Australian Amateur Championship.

Perhaps the state to begin the event as favourite though will be Queensland. Whilst the locals will field a young group of players, their class is undoubted and includes 18 year-old Tom Davis (last year’s Australian Junior champion and Australian Foursome champion – Davis will be playing in his third Interstate Teams Matches), Andrew Dodt (18 – 2003 Australian Junior Order of Merit winner), and Jason Day (16 – winner of the 2004 Queensland, Australian, and World junior titles). The Queenslanders will be led by 23 year-old captain Gavin Flint whose imposing string of successes includes the 2003 Queensland Amateur, 2003 Victorian Amateur, 2004 New South Wales Amateur, and 2004 New Zealand Amateur crowns. The locals will be well-served by their experience on Bermuda greens and also of the excellent and challenging Royal Queensland lay-out.

Players from other states expected to perform well include 28-year-old Tasmanian Robin Hodgetts (Mowbray Golf Club) – winner of the 2002 and 2003 SAGA Invitationals, and 2004 Tasmanian Amateur; and Adam Bland, 22, from Adelaide’s Flagstaff Hill Golf Club – the South Australian won the 2002 SA Amateur, and 2003 Mandurah Easter Amateur.

Being held at the same time and with a similar format to the Interstate Teams Matches will be the Interstate Colts Teams Matches, for teams of six, aged 18-23. These matches will be held at Brisbane’s picturesque Keperra Country Golf Club, which has been a past host of Australian Open Regional Qualifying rounds. This event was first conducted in 1993, whilst the winner last year at Sorrento Golf Club was Victoria.

The teams most likely to be vying for the Colts title at the business end of proceedings will again be New South Wales (with players of note including Jamie Arnold, Tristan Lambert, and Alex Simpson), Queensland (Paul Donahoo, Ben Lammi, and Kurt Carlson), and Victoria (Jon Abbott, Anthony Brown, and Steve Jones).

The Centenary Interstate Teams Matches and Interstate Colts Teams Matches will be preceded by the playing of the Australian Amateur Foursome Championship at Brisbane’s Virginia Golf Club on Saturday 11 September. All state and colts team players, including Tom Davis (who won the event last year with Richard Moir at Long Island Country Club), will compete at Virginia over 36 holes.

Source – AGU