Brown, Green in NZ Amateur Grand Final
IN: News | New Zealand Mens Amateur | New Zealand Amateur Championship (2006) | Round Four | 08 Apr 2006
Andrew Green became the first New Zealand golfer in three years to reach the national match-play final when he nailed a three metre birdie putt at the last hole to oust 2006 Australian Amateur champion, Tim Stewart, in the semi-finals at Coringa.
The closing stage of their tense match was watched by defending champion, Mitchell Brown, from the Bankstown club in New South Wales, who had comfortably booked his place in the final much earlier with an emphatic 5 and 4 win against Hamilton international James Gill.
Brown, who was five-under in winning his morning quarter-final, was four-under against Gill and he found his best form on the homeward half. Brown was 1 up and square at the turn, but won four of the next five holes, two with birdies and one with eagle.
Brown now has the chance to become the first golfer to defend the match-play crown since Auckland's Terry Pulman in 1976 and 1977.
But the centre stage on a blustery afternoon was reserved for Green, the first Wellington player to make the final since Reon Sayer lost the 1997 at nearby Harewood to Canterbury's Chris Johns.
Stewart, 21, was uncharacteristically out of sorts on the front nine with six bogeys and only two birdies. The New South Welshman found himself 3 down at the turn and 4 down when Green almost holed his approach to the par-11th. However, Stewart fought back, winning 12 with a short birdie putt and 13 when Green missed a return par putt from 2 metres.
The 22-year-old Shandon club player who had not made the top 32 cut in five other appearances at the New Zealand championship, did well to up-and-down to halve the par-5 14th in birdies, but he double-bogeyed the 15th to be only 1 up.
At 16 Green holed a birdie putt to be dormie, but Stewart's fighting qualities were evident when he slotted a 6.5m birdie putt at the par-3 17th to keep the match alive. At 18, Stewart put his approach to two metres, but Green ran a low iron through trees to three metres below the pin and rolled in the birdie putt.
Green said he kept quite calm down the stretch and backed his putter which had worked well in the match play rounds. After putting indifferently in the early stroke rounds, he consulted his Wellington coach Kevin Smith on Tuesday and what they discussed appears to have paid dividends over the few days.
Source - NZGA
