Won Joon Lee leads NZ Amateur
IN: News | New Zealand Mens Amateur | New Zealand Amateur Championship (2006) | Round One | 03 Apr 2006
Solidly-built Australian Won Joon Lee lived up to his billing as fourth-best world amateur golfer with a five-under 68 to hold a one-shot lead after the first round of the New Zealand 72-hole stroke-play championship.
Hard on his heels is another New South Welshman, Mitchell Brown, the current New Zealand match-play champion and beaten finalist in the Australian equivalent at Hobart last week.
The morning leaders, the Wellington pair from the Shandon club, Richard Pegg and Jonny Dittmer, shared third on three-under 70, while Auckland's Fraser Wilkin and Australian foursomes champion, Steve Dartnall, from Royal Perth, were equal fith on 71.
The five players on one-under 72 were Australian match-play champion Tim Stewart, fellow Australians Scott Arnold and Andrew Martin, Canterbury No. 1 Brad Stuart, and young Arrowtown golfer Sean Roach.
Lee, a 20-year-old from the Concord club in New South Wales, was one of few players to master the long Coringa course and had seven birdies in a round marked by long driving – many tee shots sailing well past 300m – and accurate iron play.
His only two lapses came at the par-4 11th where he had a poor chip and at the par-3 17th where he left his second shot in the bunker.
Lee, one of the two Australians in the Asia-Pacific team to play Europe's best amateurs for the Sir Michael Bonallack Trophy, was equal fifth in the Australian stroke-play event.
Brown, who won last year's New Zealand foursomes and finished third in the stroke-play before taking the match-play crown, eagled the par-5 first and had five other birdies along with three bogeys.
Dittmer had four birdies, including two 2s, and one bogey in his round while Pegg, who was par for the back nine which he played first, had four birdies and a bogey in the first five holes on the front side.
Wilkin had six birdies but his round lost some gloss with a double-bogey seven at the 14th, and Stuart, who was four-under through 12 holes, had two bogeys and a double-bogey over his last six holes.
Hawkes Bay's Grant Hall bagged the first hole-in-one of the tournament, finding the cup with a No. 6 iron at the par-3 157m 13th, but the ace did not help him to a good back nine for he had two bogeys, a double-bogey, and a triple-bogey in a five-over 41 and a round of 81. Leading Malaysian Ben Leong, who is in the Asia-Pacific team to play Europe for the Bonallack Trophy in Auckland later this month, withdrew with a fever.
After the second round tomorrow, the field will be reduced to the leading 72 players and ties who will play another 36 holes over Wednesday and Thursday to find the national stroke-play champion and recipient of the St Andrews Salver.
Source - NZGA
Photo - Anthony Powter
