Course record sees Arnold lead NSW Open

BY Anthony Powter | Von Nida Tour | 2008 New South Wales Open | Round One | 13 Nov 2008

Jamie Arnold obviously has a liking for The Vintage layout, as he fired a course record 9-under-par 62 to secure a one shot lead moving into the second round of the NSW Open Championship.

Arnold, from Sydney’s southern shire, bettered fellow local professional Ewan Porter’s course record 65 at last year’s championship and his round positions the talented 25-year-old well for his first Von Nida Tour championship since turning professional in the end of 2006.

“I’ve struggled a bit lately,” said Arnold after today’s round.

“I missed progressing to second stage of the European Tour School a few months back by a shot and have always felt the game was there and today’s round shows I can get the results.”

It was a peerless display of golf by Arnold on The Vintage’s 6310 metre layout located in the Hunter Valley, in a round that included a staggering eleven birdies, which were only punctuated with two bogeys.

“Tomorrow is another day and I’m not getting too carried away with this start,” said Arnold.

“Obviously you always like to get off to a start like this but you have to take each round as it comes.”

A stroke behind Arnold at 8-under-par is local Aaron Townsend, who fired a creditable 63 and leads Steven Jones by two strokes. Three players are tied at 4th position with Rowan Beste, Ryan Hammond and Adam Wilcox, all at 5-under-par.

Talented rookie professional Matthew Griffin continues to see his professional career off to a great start and opened his third Von Nida Tour event in style with an impressive 4-under-par 67 to be in T7th position.

Griffin opened his maiden Von Nida Tour event with a runner-up finish at the WA PGA Championship and has easily moved into the professional ranks.

“My game is there and I feel comfortable with the transition,” said the former world number three amateur.

“It’s all about getting starts early in your career and these Von Nida Tour events are just fantastic for that.”

Despite Griffin’s recent efforts and stellar amateur performances both in the US and locally, he needs to qualify for the Australian Masters next week having being overlooked for a sponsor’s invitation into the event.

With a start guaranteed in the Australian Open at Royal Sydney in December, it’s questionable as to why a player of this promising talent has been left out of the remaining Australian Tour events and not been considered as a sponsor’s invite. It is not worrying Griffin as he is set to attempt to pre-qualify for those events.

Defending champion Jason Norris of Adelaide opened his defence well with a 2-under-par 69, however, it was the efforts of golfing legend Rodger Davis with an opening 3-under-par 68 that had the crowd talking. Davis is currently in T9 position, along with the inform Michael Long.

Following tomorrow’s second round, the cut of the top 50 professionals will be determined to compete in the Team Challenge Pro-Am, where professionals and amateurs compete together in a four-ball, best-ball Stableford event during the final two days of the championship.