Tampion halfway leader at IFQ
BY iseekgolf.com | Australasian PGA Tour | 2008 British Open International Final Qualifying | Round One | 05 Feb 2008
Victorian Andrew Tampion will be hoping its ‘third time lucky’ as he heads into the second half of International Final Qualifying for The Open Championship at The Lakes in Sydney today with a handy three shot lead.
The 23-year-old from the Kingswood Golf Club fired a first round 6 under 67, reeling off 8 birdies with a double bogey his only blemish and heads out for the final 18 holes with the dream of making it to his first Open Championship.
It is Tampion’s third attempt at IFQ after he was unsuccessful in 2005 at Kingston Heath and last year at Sunningdale but his three shot buffer is encouraging for someone who had only played the course once before. He heads out for this afternoon’s second and final round three shots ahead of the experienced Jarrod Moseley and Queenslander Adam Crawford who had opening rounds of 3 under 70.
A group of six players including last year’s runner up Peter Fowler is a further shot back on 2 under whilst last year’s winner Ewan Porter is 1 under alongside teenage sensation Ryo Ishikawa from Japan.
The Australian duo of Bronson La Cassie and Aaron Pike have quite an experience playing alongside Ishikawa who has over 150 people following him today. La Cassie has shot an even par 73 with Pike on 1 over 74.
Starting in the first group on the 10th at 6:50am, Tampion was three under at the turn and gave credit to his caddie, local boy Jamie Arnold, for guiding him over the course.
“I haven’t played here for years so Jamie was just telling me where to hit it and I listened,” said Tampion. “I felt really good about my game and was making birdies where I should so I’ll just be going out this afternoon and doing the same thing€hitting it where Jamie tells me to!”
With just a light shower falling on the early starters the conditions were a far cry from yesterday’s consistently torrential showers.
“The conditions were perfect and it cleared after the first hole,” said Tampion. “My only problem was at the 2nd when I double bogeyed but I got three straight birdies after that so I didn’t let it get to me.”
A former Eisenhower Trophy Team member, Tampion joined the Australasian Tour in 2007, finishing 27th on Order of Merit with results including T10 at the MasterCard Masters & T20 at the MFS Australian Open. In 2006 he was one of only six players to come through all three Stages of the 2006 European Tour Qualifying School (finishing T24) to win a Tour card eventually finishing 161st on the 2007 OOM.
The afternoon’s groups are all out on course now with the last teeing off at 1:40pm.
IFQ Australasia will give four players from the 55 man field the chance to line up at this year’s Open Championship at Royal Birkdale from July 17-20.
