Lee strolls to NZ Amateur Strokeplay victory
IN: News | New Zealand Mens Amateur | New Zealand Amateur Championship (2006) | Strokeplay Wrap | 06 Apr 2006
Won Joon Lee kept the New Zealand 72-hole stroke-play golf title in Australian hands for a fourth successive year when he romped to a six-shot victory at the Coringa Country Club course in Christchurch today.
Lee had led the championship from day one after an opening round of five-under 68 and the initiative was never wrested from the power-hitting New South Welshman who made a habit of driving some of the par-4 holes.
He started today's final round five shots ahead of Hamilton's James Gill at 12-under par. At the turn he was 14-under par and had extended his lead to six shots over Western Australian Steve Dartnall.
The Concord club golfer finished with a one-under 71 - his fourth consecutive sub-par round - and at 14-under for the tournament he had six shots to spare over his nearest challenger, Aucklander Travis O'Connell (The Grange), who came out of the pack with a course record of seven-under 66 for an eight-under total of 284.
Three shots in a share of third were New Zealand teammates and Hamilton clubmates, Gill and Mark Purser, on five-under par with Dartnall at four-under.
Canterbury's Tyrone Nelson (Kaiapoi) was sixth on two-under par and the only other players to finish in red figures were defending New Zealand match-play champion, Mitchell Brown, from New South Wales, and New Zealand Eisenhower representative, Josh Geary (Mt Maunganui), who had three straight sub-par rounds after a 79 in the opening round.
The cut for the match play championship which starts tomorrow with two rounds was at seven-over 299, with three players in a sudden-death play off for the final two places in the 32. Leighton James (The Grange) and New South Welshman Scott Arnold qualified at the first hole with a birdie and a par, respectively, Scott Wightman (Muriwai) being the un fortunate player.
Lee started his final round with a birdie and although he dropped a shot at the second with a three-putt, he birdied the third, sixth and seventh holes, and bogeyed the eighth to turn in two-under.
He took an unplayable in a hedge at the 10th and dropped a shot, but two-putted the par-5 12th for a birdie and parred his way in, several birdie putts sliding by.
"I tried to keep my tee shots in play and to minimise the bad shots. I tried to pay attacking golf without being stupid," Lee said.
O'Connell claimed the course record set by Gill and Lee the previous day with a fine display of putting. He felt he struck the ball better in the second and third rounds, but the putter was not such a good ally in those rounds.
He birdied the first, fifth sixth and seventh holes before a bogey at the eighth had him three-under at the turn. It was a flawless back nine with birdies at 12, 14, 16, and 18 for a four-under 32.
Gill's challenge stalled early with a double bogey at the second and a bogey at the third, but Purser showed his class with an eagle at the first and five birdies in his four-under 69.
Key first-round matches today have Dartnall against New Zealand representative, Richard Wright (Matamata) and titleholder Brown against talented Wellington No. 1 Brenden Stuart.
Source - NZGA
