West Australian Connor McKinney (Joondalup) blew away the field with 18 under to take out the South Australian Amateur Classic by nine shots at Royal Adelaide Golf Club on Friday.
Connor has an impressive resume – he represented Australia at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship last year and is an Australian Medallist as winner of the stroke play section of the Australian Amateur in 2018 – but he was thrilled to have that elusive win finally on his list of accolades.
“It was kind of frustrating not having won yet, but I had a lot of belief it would come so I just kept putting in the work’, he said.
Connor said he had a perfect week of golf, “I hit so many shots within the 15-foot range, but at the end of the day it’s putting that gets the job done.”
After a solid start shooting 68 and 69 in the first two rounds, the floodgates did open in the third when Connor broke the course record with a nine-under 63 that included ten birdies.
“Being able to string good rounds together, with the course record thrown in there, that’s definitely the best four consecutive rounds of golf I’ve played,” said McKinney.
Today Connor got off to a perfect start with four straight birdies after four holes but then bogied the fifth and eighth holes. He was able to turn 3 under with a birdie down the par 5 ninth, holding onto his healthy lead. He started the back nine steady with four straight pars but then on the 14th hole, after just missing the green for his second he walked off with a double bogey. But like all great champions he followed it back with a birdie on the next, completing the round two under, “knowing that I he had a few shots to spare on the rest of the field, I told himself to stick to what I was doing and not let anything external get in my way”, he said.
Next week Connor and many other West Ausies are playing in the Australian Amateur at Cranbourne Golf Club. His plan is to rest up and then back into practicing on Sunday with the basics.
For the full leaderboard and results of the other West Australians who competed in South Australia please click on the link below.
Leaderboard for South Australian Amateur Classic & Rene Erichsen Salver
