Booth fires course record at NSW Open

BY iseekgolf.com | Von Nida Tour | 2006 New South Wales Open | Round One | 09 Nov 2006

A course record eight-under-par 62 saw Tocumwal golfer Rodney Booth surge to the top of the leaderboard after the first round of the $125,000 Proton New South Wales Open at Sydney’s Moore Park Golf Course today.

Booth had a purple patch of seven birdies in nine holes to take a two-shot lead over Victorian Luke Hickmott with a batch of others at four-under par sharing third spot.

Booth brought some strong form to the final event of the Von Nida Tour for 2006, finishing tied for 10th in the Queensland Masters.

Yet even he was thrilled that he struck the ball “awesome” to take advantage of an early-morning tee time to take the early lead, bettering the 63 that ACT amateur Andrew McKenzie fired in the 2004 City of Sydney Championship around the inner-city layout.

Booth later explained that “less was more” as far as his golf was concerned because he had made all four cuts of the Von Nida Tour events despite actually cutting back his playing schedule in recent months.

“I got married in May and my wife Maggie and I have been setting up in our new house since then and as a result I have just not been travelling as much.”

“I did make a decision to play a bit less and I guess it is starting to pay off.”

After bogeying the eighth Booth looked to be doing nothing special, stuck in the middle of the pack at one-under-par, before igniting with a string of birdies.

“Actually there was no special shot that set it all off or anything,” he said. “I hit every fairway today bar a couple of the par fives and I still managed to birdie both of those with good second shots.”

“I also drove the ninth (286m) and believe it or not I only holed two putts over 10 feet. I hit the driver really well today, though, and that really helped and I only had 27 putts.”

Booth is probably much better known in Victoria where he completed his traineeship and admitted he plays very few pro-ams north of the Murray River.

“I usually play all the Victorian ones though,” he said. “Although technically I do actually live in New South Wales.”

Booth said there were not that many events for him to play in this summer – at the moment. “Of course all that could change if I could win this,” he smiled.

Naturally the likes of Luke Hickmott (64), Ben Bunny (66), Brendan Chant (66) and several seasoned professionals like former US PGA champion Wayne Grady (67) and Chris Gray (66) might have something to say about that in the next couple of days.

Former leading amateur Mitchell Brown would have been more than satisfied with his first round as a professional, shooting a one-under-par 69 to be seven off the lead.

Star 17-year-old World Junior Amateur champion Matthew Giles left Moore Park a little disappointed with his two-over-par 72 but determined to bounce back and make the cut.

With half the field still on the course, leading amateur was current Australian amateur champion Tim Stewart, from Sydney’s Monash Country Club, who posted a two-under-par 68.

Other scores of note included Channel Nine rugby league commentator Paul ’Fatty’ Vautin’s 14-over 84, which was actually better than it looked after a horror start which saw him 10-over-par after six holes, before bouncing back on his second nine.

Other scores of note included Anthony Painter’s one-under 69, Kurt Barnes (68), Scott Draper (71), Marcus Cain (68) and Adam Groom (69).