Semi-final match ups decided at Australian Amateur
IN: News | Australian Mens Amateur | Australian Amateur Championship (2006) | Quarter-Finals | by Anthony Powter | 28 Mar 2006
Quarter and Semi-Final Photo Gallery
It was an invasion by New South Welshmen in the morning quarter-final match play rounds at Royal Hobart that will see the afternoon semi-final matches being contested with 3 of the 4 players from NSW competing for the Championship round.
Mitchell Brown is the player to watch. Brown disposed Kunal Bhasin 6 & 5 this morning and will match up against last year's finalist Andrew Tampion, who got out of jail with a 1 up over Peter Cooke. If it was not for a chip in on the 15th for a par, Tampion could well have been packing his bags back to Kingswood, Melbourne.
The Brown/Tampion match promises to be one of the best match play rounds in an Australian Amateur.
It will be the first time the two have met in elimination match play and it will be an interesting tussle especially with selection for the Eisenhower Team on offer. The Eisenhower Cup is scheduled to be played in South Africa in October later this year, the prize many an amateur aspires to. A win at the Australian Amateur will not hurt either Brown's or Tampion's chances of team selection.
In what would be his best performance to date, Jamie Arnold held on to eliminate National Team member Andrew Dodt, 2 up after eliminating another National Team member Joon Won Lee 5 & 4 yesterday. Arnold is on a roll and is to play Tim Stewart from Monash Golf Club from Sydney's Northern Beaches. Stewart probably goes into the semi-final with the upper edge, having played Arnold twice in Sydney Metropolitan Pennants, coming up trumps on both occasions.
Royal Hobart is a course that suits elimination match play. Whilst not long at 6,150 metres, in the words of Mitchell Brown "There are birdies everywhere out there".
Whoever is holding the Challenge Cup tomorrow evening will find doors suddenly opening; a start at the British Amateur, a three year exemption at the MFS Australian Open and invites to the main Australasian Tour events.
The Australian Amateur Champion tends to be looked after, at least in the interim "honeymoon" period that follows, by both the Amateur bodies as well as the various promoters on the Australasian PGA Tour.
You start to get the picture there is more at stake than just the honour of winning a Championship that has been played since 1894 when Louis Whyte graced the Royal Melbourne fairways. At present it is Hobart where the golfing public from around Australia are closely watching the action unfold.
