18 year old Curtis Luck may not have the same experience as the professional field at next week’s John Hughes Nexus Risk Services WA Open, but the Cottesloe member does have a distinct advantage when it comes to home course knowledge.
Prior to most of the field’s arrival on Tuesday, Luck was the lone golfer on the Cottesloe Golf Club putting greens this morning where he’s been a member since 2006. Luck has had his best year to date, highlighted by the Australian Amateur where he finished as a finalist, pushing his national ranking up to number 2.
As an amateur in a professional event, it’s easy to temper expectations, however pre-tournament favourite Oliver Goss raced to victory in 2012 in a playoff shootout against Brady Watt, also an Amateur at the time. Both Goss and Watt will return to the WA Open in 2014, and Luck is putting the work in to give him as much of a chance to emulate their feat in 2014.
“I’ll go out and play some holes later today, I’m trying to get out on the course as much as possible,” said Luck during his practice.
To keep his practice rounds at a high intensity Luck often joins fellow WA state team member Kiran Day on the course, who will also play this year’s WA Open, to ensure he keeps his competitive streak alive.
“Kiran’s a member here so we head out and play a bit against each other, we have a couple side bets to keep things interesting and stop us from shooting hundreds!”
“You have to go out there and take it seriously. Yesterday afternoon when we played I had 3-under and Kiran had two. There’s good golf being played and that’s the whole point, as it puts you under more pressure than if you were playing by yourself.”
With a score between -10 and -15 expected to win the event, Luck seems right on the money to contend on his home course, where’s he’s received a lot of support from the club and its membership base.
“The members here are awesome. Right now we probably have the best set of members I’ve ever seen. They’re very supportive, so I’m hoping if there weather’s good we can draw some good crowds.”
“It’s not just another event when it’s at your home course. It doesn’t come around very often to have the chance to play a professional event at a course where you’ve played all of your golf. I hope to be in a position to at least make a run at the leaders by the weekend, that would be great.”
