Brown edges fellow Aussie for NZ Amateur title
IN: News | New Zealand Mens Amateur | New Zealand Amateur Championship (2005) | Wrap | 24 Apr 2005
Mitchell Brown edged out fellow Australian Andrew Dodt on the final green to claim the New Zealand Amateur Golf Championship in Palmerston North today.
Brown (New South Wales) took out the 36-hole final 1-up in a dogfight in cold and windy conditions at the Manawatu Golf Club.
Neither of the Australian teenagers had reached the 18th hole in any of the earlier rounds of matchplay, but both slugged it out in tough conditions with Brown finishing the 36-holes in 2-under par with seven birdies.
The pair will team up for Australia to take on the New Zealanders in next month's Four Nations tournament in Japan before heading for the major amateur tournaments in the United States.
Dodt, the two-time Queensland junior champion, led 2-up after the morning round when he proved the steadier in his short game.
The match swung over when Brown claimed three holes in a row – 23rd to the 25th holes – to claim the lead for the first time. He was able to hold off his fellow Australian representative over the closing holes, making some superb saves around the green, to take his first international title.
Ironically it was Brown's short game that let him down over the first 18 holes with two three-putts and he twice failed to get up and down from handy positions.
Dodt won the opening hole with a par before a Brown birdie at the squared the match at the par-5 seventh hole. They were still all-square after 15 holes before Brown could not get up-and-down at the 16th and then went 2-down with a superb Dodt birdie at the 18th.
Brown won two of the first five holes in the afternoon round and grabbed the lead for the first time with a birdie at the 25th. A Dodt birdie squared the match at the 28th but he gave it back with a bogey four holes later. From that point Brown was all class, holding off all that his compatriot could throw at him.
While New Zealanders were shut-out of their own championship for the fourth year in a row, there was a Kiwi flavour with former New Zealand Golf mentor Alex Mercer guiding Brown's golfing fortunes.
Meanwhile New Zealand Golf has announced a strong team to contest the World Junior Team Championship to be held in Japan in June.
The team for the annual championship at the Chukyo Golf Club in Toyota City from 21-24 June is Jae An (Bay of Plenty), Sam Shin (North Harbour), Aaron Leech, Perry Hayman (both Wellington).
The quartet were all members of the New Zealand junior team against Australia earlier this year. The 17-year-old An and 16-year-old Hayman produced eye-catching performances at the New Zealand Amateur. An was the fourth qualifier in strokeplay with a seven-under 281 while Hayman shared seventh and made it through to the second round of matchplay.
Shin, 15, was runner-up in the Junior British Open last year, narrowly missing the cut for the final 32 in the New Zealand Amateur.
Leech, who missed the Amateur, will be making his second appearance in the championship after impressing in Japan last year. It is a 72-hole strokeplay event with the best three of four rounds counting.
Source - NZGA
Photo - Anthony Powter
