Australians set pace at NZ Amateur
IN: News | New Zealand Mens Amateur | New Zealand Amateur Championship (2006) | Round Two | 04 Apr 2006
Australians continued to set the pace at the halfway mark of the New Zealand men's 72-hole stroke-play golf championship at Coringa today, but some of the leading Kiwis moved into contention.
Overnight leader Won Joon Lee, from the Concord Club in New South Wales, maintained his one-shot lead over fellow Australian, Mitchell Brown, after both returned one-under 72s in the second round, but two of New Zealand's best hopes, James Gill and Mark Purser, made inroads with rounds of 69.
The Hamilton pair both had 76 in the first round - Gill dropping six shots in the last five holes - but both were on their games today with six birdies apiece to finish just five shots off the pace and tied for eighth with 36 holes remaining.
Lee will start the third round at six-under par with Brown (Bankstown), the New Zealand match-play champion, a shot adrift and one ahead of Canterbury's Tyrone Nelson, whose 68 was the best second-day score.
Alone in fourth place on three-under was Wellington's Richard Pegg, who had an eagle and a double-bogey at the 18th in his par 73 to back an opening 70.
The cut was at 156 - 10-over par, which left a field of 81 to play for the St Andrews Salver which has been won by Australians for the last three years.
Lee, 20, described his round as "poor'" with several mishits and he was not helped by a double-bogey at the par-4 15th where he put his approach over the green, chipped too strongly, and missed a 2 metre bogey putt.
Brown, who partnered Lee in the foursomes, birdied the first and eighth to turn at two-under and stretched that to four-under with birdies at 10 and 12, but he came to grief with a double-bogey at the par-3 13th and holed a 2.5m putt at the last to prevent a second double-bogey.
"I leaked a bit of oil,'" was his succinct summary.
Nelson (Russley), who made his Canterbury debut at the national inter-provincial team tournament at Titirangi last November, birdied his last three holes to leap from equal 21st overnight to third.
He started on the back nine and turned two-under with seven pars and birdies at 13 and 16. His solid round continued with a birdie at the first, five pars, and a bogey at the sixth before his outstanding finish where he holed 3m birdie putts at the seventh and eighth and a 16m birdie across the green at the ninth.
Nelson said he had been working with Coringa-based coach David Norquay and was on song with his game, driving and putting impressively.
Gill, off the 10th, birdied five of his first six holes and bogeyed the other. He turned in four-under 32 and went five-under at the first before a bogey at the ninth. Purser turned in two-under and was also two-under on the back nine with birdies at 10, 12, and 14 and a bogey at the last.
Another leading New Zealand representative, Josh Geary (Mt Maunganui), who was in danger of missing the halfway cut after a 79 in the first round, ensured that did not happen with a one-under 72. He had five birdies on the back nine which he did in three-under 33.
Source - NZGA
Photo - Anthony Powter
