Min Woo Lee (Royal Fremantle) and Haydn Barron (WA Golf Club) were victorious in both the Men’s Open and Amateur event at the State Foursomes Championships held at Mandurah Country Club today while Hannah Green (Mount Lawely) and Alyssa Keir (The Vines) won the Women’s event.
It was a tight affair in the Men’s event but Lee and Barron were consistent throughout, shooting 73 and 71 en route to a playoff victory against professionals Kerrod Gray and Ackzel Donaldson.
The hopes of the pair faded after back to back bogeys on the 2nd and 3rd hole in the second round, but a 40m chip in for eagle on the fourth hole propelled the pair into the lead.
Gray and Donaldson didn’t fare well in the opening round but connected in the afternoon, shooting 68 to come in late to force a playoff when it seemed unlikely anyone would match the then lone clubhouse leaders.
The playoff was sealed with a tremendous 270m drive from Lee, who split the 18th fairway while Gray sprayed his shot right onto the 9th. Barron’s approach set up an easy tap in par while the professionals made bogey to concede the title.
Good friends Hannah Green (Mount Lawley) and Alyssa Keir (The Vines) combined well late to defeat defending champions Hira Naveed and Rachita Vasandani. Both pairs were tied after 18 holes and again after outstanding birdies on the seventh but Green and Keir stayed strong late in the second to take the victory by three strokes.
PLAYER INTERVIEWS
Green & Keir
Golf WA: So whose idea was the socks?
Hannah Green: We we both wanted to do something funky so we decided to go with the pink socks. We were trying to match our shirts but not very well though!
GWA: How did you handle the format? Must be difficult when you hit a bad shot and put pressure’s on your partner?
HG: It was hard out there. Usually if you hit a bad shot you’re the one having to go and fix it, but it was still a lot of fun out there.
Alyssa Keir: We collaborated really well together. We really trusted and helped each other.
GWA: Must help being good friends too?
HG: We had a lot of “sorry’s” out there!
AK: But we’d laugh about it though, I think that’s why we played so we together.
GWA: What was the most trouble Hannah put you in today?
AK: I don’t know actually, there wasn’t any situations where that happened.
GWA: That’s a good answer!
HG: Yeah!
GWA: I better not ask Hannah the same question then! How did you handle playing 36 holes today?
AK: A little bit. Probably didn’t realise until we sat down that we’re kinda tired now. We are all day so we kept our energy up!
GWA: At what point did you pull away from Hira and Rachita, as it was pretty close for most of the day?
HG: We had a 2-shot lead for about 6 holes, but they kept threatening. On 17 when they made bogey it gave us a really good cushion down he last.
Lee & Barron
GWA: Well done on winning the amateur and the Open. Did you find it hard to get back out there for extras after already playing 36 today?
Min Woo Lee: Once we had the clubhouse lead we didn’t really expect Ackzel and Kerrod to come in with a 68 in the final round. We had already packed up and put the clubs in the car. We had to bring them back out and get practicing!
GWA: You scored pretty consistently today, how did you work together?
Haydn Barron: We played really well early on in the first round. Min Woo kept us together with his putting, I left a few 6 footers on the green but he didn’t really miss inside 10ft all day. I felt like I could give all of the birdie putts a good run knowing he’d hole it on the way back.
We were pretty solid off the tee and with our irons all day so it was good I could rely on him on the greens and give it a crack.
GWA: Talk us through your eagle on 4.
HB: Min Woo hated his drive, he wasn’t happy.
MWL: I just leaked right and into the rough, but it was kinda teed up so Haydn did a driver off the deck that went to about 40 out, and then I hit it in the hole.
HB: It just bounced twice and hit the pin, that killed it and it dropped in.
GWA: Is that when you thought you could win? When word went around about your eagle it seemed like it made you the favourites when scores were all pretty tight.
HB: We kinda lost a bit of consistency and felt pretty tired I guess until that happened. We birdied the first and then bogeyed 2 and 3. They were pretty soft bogeys, so it was good to get the eagle and get those two shots back.
GWA: Does it mean a lot more to win the Open as well as the Amateur?
MWL: When we went to the playoff, we thought we had nothing to lose as we had already won the amateur. After the drive that I had we really believed we could win the Open.
