Mount Lawley Golf Club was a humid 28 degrees for the start of the match play knock outs to see who will become the Amateur Champions of WA. The course was presented well, ready for the big hitters, if accurate, to make plenty of birdies.
However, spare a thought for Marty Van Eldik (Rockingham) who won a play-off to secure the 32nd position but was matched against the Medallist Ryan Peake (Lakelands). Through the first nine holes Marty was under the card but 5 down, as Ryan managed 5 birdies and an eagle on the ninth hole to take a solid lead and continue the good form to win the match 6 & 5.
One of the favourites for taking out the men’s title was Riley Gott (Western Australian) who lost to Darren Neilson (Wanneroo) after a very competitive 19 holes. Gott had a twelve-foot birdie opportunity on their 18th hole to take out the match 1 up, but unfortunately it wasn’t to be. They went on to the 19th hole, the course’s first hole, and Neilson played it solidly with a birdie to win.
The women also saw a favourite bowing out in the first round with Aprileen Sirait (Mount Lawley) taking down Sheridan Clancy (Lake Karrinyup) 4 & 3, maybe a bit of home ground advantage giving her the edge needed.
After lunch with half the field eliminated the temperature and humidity dropped but the golf still got hotter and closer. The players came out firing with plenty of passion with four of the twelve matches needing extra holes.
It’s a shame when you make a nice birdie on the short 16th hole only to be beaten by an eagle. But its ok, you can get it back on the next hole, a hittable in two par 5. This was the case for the matchings of Jayson Watson (Mount Lawley) and Andrew Woods (Gosnells) who said, “not a bad effort for a fat old bloke with a bad back even if I did go down 3 & 2”.
The match between Joseph Buttress (Western Australian) and Adam Brady (The Vines) was the hardest fought making its way down to the 21st hole. It looked like Joseph was well positioned off the tee even though he was in the bunker as Adam had overcooked his drive into the left bush. Adam played a beautiful bunker shot from 132 metres out that was a dart to the pin but just rolled off the back edge, still in a good position. From the fairway it looked like Adam surely could only just chip out, but he saw something different, channelling his inner “Seve Ballesteros” he found a gap snapped hooked it around the trees landed it on the green and it rolled up to a lovely 10 feet from the pin. Joseph couldn’t hole his putt from off the back edge however Adam could, taking out the match. It certainly was the second shot that made the man in this case, but make sure you get the putt.
There were two afternoon upsets with both the Medallists going home. Shaun Cameron (The Vines) was able to defeat Ryan Peake (Lakelands) 2 & 1. The golf was certainly hot with these two as Shaun said, “we were winning most holes with a birdie, par was just a square”.
Kathryn Norris (Mandurah) was down most of the day against Mia Lawson (Joondalup) all afternoon but in the last few holes fought back to be square forcing extra holes. Even with the momentum in Kathryn’s favour Mia was too good and won on the 19th hole. Kathryn said, “that is match play, I played well but you never know what can happen”.
Tomorrow will see the men’s top eight fight it out and the women’s top four to see who makes the Sunday 36-hole finals. Hope to see you on the course at Mount Lawley Golf Club, but if you cannot make it stay up to date with live scoring via the Amateur Championship of WA on our website.
