Ricky Schmidt storms to the front at NSW Open

BY iseekgolf.com | Von Nida Tour | 2004 New South Wales Open | Round One | 18 Nov 2004

Central Coast professional Ricky Schmidt is ready to take the next big step in his golf career.

The 32-year-old, who beat Rod Pampling to win an Australian Trainee Professional Championship in 1993, admits he has taken a while to find his feet in the professional ranks.

Still he showed he had the game to go places with a slashing course-record seven-under par 65 to steal the lead ahead of a host of big names in the first-round of the $100,000 New South Wales Open at Liverpool Golf Club.

Schmidt is planning to follow Pampling’s footsteps and head for the United States and chase a players’ card on the richest tour in the world.

“You never know until you try,” he said while celebrating a four-hole stretch where three birdies and an eagle saw him edge past hometown boy Anthony Summers and little-known Victorian Matthew Milne and to the top of the leaderboard.

Schmidt’s round appeared pretty pedestrian after reaching the turn at two-under par.

He parred the next three holes then suddenly ignited with a birdie-birdie-birdie-eagle-par finish to catapult up the leaderboard.

“Nothing much was happening until I reached the fifth (his 14th),” he said. “I hit my tee shot left then played a good shot to hook one in to about 10 feet and holed the putt for birdie.”

“I holed a 50 footer at the next and then knocked it to 12 feet at the next and made that one too.

“We reached the eighth hole and the wind seemed to die down a bit. Maybe it was the calm before the storm because I had about 205 to the pin and hit a three-iron to 10 feet and made that putt for eagle.”

On a day when it was US Tour stars Peter Lonard and Paul Gow, playing alongside former rugby league international Paul ’Fatty’ Vautin, that drew the crowds, Summers and Milne and later Schmidt snuck under the radar with their hot scores on a steamy western Sydney layout.

Summers has been in terrific form in recent weeks and has punctuated several impressive performances in Asia with a handful of wins on the New South Wales pro-am scene.

Indeed Summers warmed up for the Open with a slashing seven-shot win in the two-day Branxton pro-am five days earlier, in a field that included big names like Jeff Wagner, Neil Kerry and Sammy Egger.

Milne, too, had a flawless round with six birdies and 12 pars to take advantage of benign early conditions after he was drawn in the first group with New South Wales pair Aaron Byrnes (68) and amateur James Beston (71).

Earlier almost 300 people flooded the Liverpool fairways as Lonard (69) and Gow (68) took the necessary steps to be sure they would be there at the weekend.

Vautin might not be after a first-round 79 that was still seven shots better than his first round in last year’s Open at Macquarie Links, when he played while still recovering from a broken shoulder.

’Fatty’ could boast there was not one bogey on his card but he did notch two triple bogeys and one double bogey to go with 12 pars and a birdie.

Three shots out of a greenside bunker at his final hole took the wind out of his sails too.

“Take away three holes and he would have had a good score, if he had played a little bit smarter,” joked his good mate Paul Gow after their round.

“It’s a big effort for an ex-footballer to be out there playing with the golf professionals. He did well.”

The only gamesmanship between the trio occurred at one of the par fives when Lonard knocked his second shot on the green and Vautin piped up “Good shot, that’ll be good for a five.”

Lonard duly three-putted to walk off with a five.

Vautin, who normally plays off a four handicap, had a par at the tough 11th, where he would normally have a shot in a stableford competition.

“That’s four a three,” he grinned, plucking his ball out of the cup.

Tomorrow the trio are assured of another big following with a 12.38pm tee time.

Others to fire in the first round included five under par 67s to Queenslander Marcus Cain, Victorians David Armstrong and Heath Reed, locals Stewart Hardiman and Richard Swift as well as big-hitting Concord amateur Won Joon Lee.

Source – PGA Tour