LaCassie first Aussie to win Western Amateur
BY Bruce Young | US Mens Amateur Tour | 2006 Western Amateur Championship | Wrap | 07 Aug 2006
23-year-old Brisbane golfer, Bronson LaCassie, who has attended the University of Minnesota for the last two and a half years, has today won the prestigious Western Amateur in Benton Harbour in Michigan by beating Spanish star Pablo Martin in the final. Martin, who attends the University of Oklahoma, is currently the leading player in collegiate golf.
LaCassie, who finished runner up to Gavin Flint at the 2003 Queensland Amateur Championship not long before leaving for Minneapolis to begin his time at the UOM, became the first Australian in the long history of the event to win the time honoured title.
LaCassie was the 6th qualifier behind fellow Australian, Won Joon Lee, who led the qualifiers by five shots.
LaCassie’s victims on the way to the final included another Australian in Tim Stewart, who is the current Australian Amateur Champion. In the semi-finals, La Cassie disposed of Dawie Van de Walt 3 & 1 before taking on Martin and beating him 2 & 1.
“It definitely makes you believe you can go on and do what they’ve done. It is really special,” said LaCassie, the Western LaCassie first Aussie to win Western AmateurAmateur’s first international champion since Michael Kirk, of Johannesburg, South Africa, won in 2000, and only the third foreign champion in history. Jim Nelford, of Canada, won in 1977. "Definitely winning a trophy Tiger’s won feels special and is something I’ll never forget. Individually, it’s the biggest thing that’s happened to me in my career."
- Quotes and photos are courtesy of Western Amateur
