Keating aims to go one better at Amateur

BY Liz White | Australian Ladies Amateur Tour | 2009 Australian Women's Amateur | Preview | 17 Mar 2009

Stacey Keating will be hoping to go one better than last year when the Australian Amateur Championship kicks off tomorrow.

In the 2008 final, Keating was no match for a white-hot Kristie Smith and lost the 36-hole decider 8 & 7.

“Before going into last year I didn’t have that many expectations so to come second was great and to get into the finals was awesome,” she said.

“Obviously I know that I can perform well in the matchplay.”

The Australian amateur Championships starts on Wednesday with the national 72-hole stroke play to be contested at the Brisbane Golf Club. The top 32 will then qualify for the matchplay event, which starts on Monday at the newly renovated Royal Queensland.

The current number one amateur, Keating, is pleased with the way her game has come together for the highly sought after title.

“I’ve played eight tournaments in a row and last week I had a week off so it was good to get some solid practice in before the Amateur.

“I am really looking forward to it, it should be great.”

Julia Boland has also been playing non-stop competitive golf since the end of the Australian professional season and believes her game has the goods to take home the silverware next week.

“I think there is always work to be done but I am comfortable that I know what I am doing, so when it goes bad or when it goes pear-shaped, hopefully I can bring it back,” she said.

“I generally know where I am going to hit it if I hit a bad shot, so I can sort of play around with that a bit on the golf course.

“I feel fairly comfortable going into the next week,” she said.

Ashlee Dewhurst is one of the form players at the moment, coming off a brilliant Riversdale Cup win and a successful team defence of the Trans Tasman Cup against our Kiwi neighbours.

“It was good for my confidence playing the New Zealanders and then Julia and Stacey, they were up there at Riversdale so it gives me confidence going in to this week,” she said.

“My swing is still pretty good and hopefully I can keep it up.”

The Tasmanian, who just celebrated her 20th birthday, is in the best form of her life and is looking forward to her third Amateur in a row, even if she has never played at either of the two championship layouts.

“I have never played or seen the courses before, it makes me feel pretty nervous,” she said.

“I am leaving a few days early so I will hopefully get in some practice rounds around there.”

Julia Boland is also in the dark about the Amateur courses but has taken a rather philosophical approach.

“I think the more I play around Australia, and a lot of the big courses, the more I just realise it is all the same,” she said.

“You go out there with 14 clubs, there’s a little hole and you have to find it and try and put it in the hole for one less than everyone else.

“Pretty simple really.”

Keating is also going in blind.

“We know what Queensland courses are like, they have more grain and we have to take that into consideration,” she said.

“It will come down to putting.”

While the amateur is the main prize, all the girls are trying to remain focused on the immediate task at hand, to play well in the Australian Stroke Play, which will determine the seeding for the matchplay component. Keating says the Stroke Play title is also highly coveted.

“Being the Australian Stroke Play there is more focus on winning that as well rather than just qualifying, whereas when there is just two rounds of qualifying it doesn’t really matter where you finish,” she said.

“With it being the Australian Stroke Play everyone wants to win that as well.”

Julia Boland says having two major events back to back makes preparing mentally a tricky task.

“At the moment I have the stroke play in my head because I know I have to do the stroke play and then prepare again for the matchplay,” she said.

“It will be interesting at the end of the two weeks to review whether that was the right thing to do.

“I am fairly determined going in to the stroke play. If you play well in the stroke play you are going to pretty confident teeing it up on the Monday.”

Like Keating, Boland is keen to win Australia’s most prestigious title, the Amateur Championship.

“This is obviously the premier event. It is really the event to win, everyone wants to win it.

“Who doesn’t want to be Australian champion?”