Betland leads on day one of Amateur
BY Anthony Powter | Australian Mens Amateur Tour | 2009 Australian Amateur Championship | Round One | 19 Mar 2009
John Betland has fired a 6-under 65 at Virginia Golf Golf Club for a one stroke lead over Daniel Beckmann, Rory Bourke, Fraser Fothringham and Brett Rankin, following the opening round of the Australian Amateur Stroke Play Championship in Brisbane.
A field of 260 contestants are competing at this week’s championship, which is being played at the Virginia and Royal Queensland Golf Clubs. The format includes 72 holes of stroke play in the Australian Men’s Stroke Play Championships, with a cut of 75 plus tied moving to the final 36 holes of stroke starting on Saturday.
The top 32 players then progress to elimination Match Play for the Australian Amateur Championship title proper, which will be determined at Royal Queensland next Wednesday.
Whilst Betland enjoys the slightest of leads, Beckmann continues to be the current inform Australian amateur player. In the last two months Beckmann has secured two course records in National Trial events in as many starts, with a 65 at the Tasmanian Open and a 62 at the Riversdale Cup, and he continues to exhibit the type of form which resulted in the 21-year-old claiming the Federal Amateur back in 2007, Beckmann’s last major amateur title.
“It’s a great start and it’s always good to get a solid first round out of the way,” said Beckmann this evening.
“Virginia is probably the easier of the two courses and to head to Royal Queensland tomorrow with a great start under your belt, sets the championship up nicely. I feel like my game’s back to where it was when I won at Federal, in fact I would say it’s better.”
Ryan McCarthy, winner of the Tasmanian Open last month was not as fortunate as Beckmann during his opening round, carding a disastrous 78 around the Virginia layout. Luke Bleumink, winner of the 2008 Victorian Amateur, was another that will need to improve to make the cut after scoring only two better than McCarthy. Last week’s Riversdale Cup winner, Jordan Sherratt, opened with a 2-over-par 73 at Virginia.
Scott Arnold, one of the championship favourites, started strongly with a 67 at Virginia, and is only two strokes Betland. Along with Arnold in tied 6th position is New Zealander Ryan Fox, Jason Scrivener, Ken Benz from Switzerland and seasoned amateur Paul Blake from The Australian Golf Club in Sydney.
Former Australian Junior champion, Daniel Nisbet has done his chances at this championship no harm opening with a 68, a stroke better than 2008 US Players Amateur runner-up and former top ranked world Australian amateur, Matt Jager.
The respective winners of the Australian Amateur Championships and Australian Stroke Play Championships gain automatic entry into the 2009 Australian Open to be played in December at New South Wales Golf Club.
