Giles best of the Aussies at Dogwood
IN: News | US Mens Amateur | Dogwood Invitational (2008) | Round Four | by Anthony Powter | 29 Jun 2008
Matthew Giles finished the top Australian at the Dogwood Invitational in Atlanta, Georgia, in T12 at 10-under-par, eleven strokes from winner, American, Rory Hie. New Zealand’s Danny Lee started the final round three behind over-night leader Jonan Hodge, but was unable to get his game going, as he fired a final round 1-under-par 71, to eventually finish T7 at 14-under-par.
Hie stormed home the final stretch at the Druid Hills layout with six birdies in the last six holes to finish 21-under-par and deny Hodge the title by three strokes.
Hie, one of the top freshman golfers in the US in 2007, earned All-Pac-10 second team honours and was a quarter-finalist in the United States Public Links Championship in 2005. In 2004, Hie won both the Heather Farr Classic and the Lennar Junior at Mission Hills. He’s presently based, along with Matt Giles, at the University of Southern California.
Giles fired rounds 73-68-68-69 in his opening amateur tournament, setting the Australian up well for the start of his US season on tour.
“I’m on the road for the next five weeks and to get off to a solid start here at the Dogwood is great,” said Giles this evening.
“Hopefully I can build on this and play well at the Sahalee Players next week. The Dogwood was my first competitive round for five or so weeks, so I was a little rusty for the opening round and my score reflected that. Three sub-par rounds on this layout, which certainly got harder as the tournament unfolded, was a great result for me and I’m confident of doing well over the next month.”
Giles was recently given a PING All-America honourable mention by the Golf Coaches Association of America during his freshman year at University of Southern California. He is one of Australia’s most promising talents and will be worth following this season, in what is his first full season out from the junior golf ranks.
Danny Lee’s final round was hampered by unusually poor putting and a failure to dominate the par-5’s.
“My striking and playing lines were pretty good today, but I just could not get hold of any of the par-5’s, so as to make a move,” remarked Lee.
“I played the par-5’s, 1-over, where you should be aiming for birdies. That hurts your score”.
Lee leaves this evening for the UK in an attempt to pre-qualify for The Open Championship, before returning to the US to play the Porter Cup, Western Amateur and the US Amateur.
Matthew Griffin and Matt Jager both recorded top-20 finishes this week in Atlanta, finishing 8-under-par and T18. The Dogwood was Griffin’s opening US event and aside from the opening 74, he was pleased with his result this week.
“The opening round obviously was not something I was looking for,” remarked Griffin.
“Generally, I’m pleased with the way I played and the form is there from the Australian summer. I really need to improve on my putting to seriously contend here. You cannot afford to be off with the putter, the fields are just too good.”
Jager will join Matthew Giles, Jason Scrivener and Daniel Nisbet at the Sahalee Players Championship starting 1 July.
“It was tough this week with the weather and pin placements, but not shooting a score over-par shows my game is there and I feel I can do well here in the US,” said Jager.
Josh Younger also started his US tour with a strong performance with a 7-under-par total to finish T22, whilst Tim Stewart finished T28 at 6-under-par, followed by Jason Scrivener with a 5-under-par total and T32.
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