Haydn Barron has carded a second round of 6-under (66) at Royal Queensland GC to rocket up the leaderboard of the Australian Amateur in Queensland. The Western Australian Golf Club member finishes the stroke-play section of qualifying in a tie for 9th, safely inside the cut of 64 men who now progress through to the match play.
Weather conditions were calm at Royal Queensland this morning and Barron took full advantage of the easier scoring on his way to carding nine birdies.
Hayden Hopewell qualified for the match play just one shot behind Barron after finishing the stroke play at 3-under. Two back-to-back rounds under par highlight Hopewell’s consistency and the long-hitting Royal Fremantle talent is poised to go deep into the match play rounds.
Ryan Peake (Lakelands CC) continues to impress upon his return to competitive golf. The left-handed powerhouse has recorded some impressive results on the local WA scene in the past 6 months and it is fantastic to see him perform on the national stage.
Despite 2020 being his debut at the Australian Amateur, young gun Tom Addy has fought his way into the match play section of the tournament. The impressive 15-year-old from Joondalup is in the midst of a rich vein of form after two consecutive top 3 finishes in the SA Junior Amateur and SA Junior Masters last week.
Connor Fewkes and Jose De Sousa round our the West Aussie contingent that will now battle it out in the match play at Royal Queensland
On the women’s side of the draw, we have three West Aussies inside the top 32 that will now advance to the match play.
Mount Lawley’s Kirsten Rudgeley finished in an impressive tie for 6th after her two rounds of qualifying. Rudgeley carded an opening round of 2-under at Brisbane GC yesterday and went level with the card today at Royal Queensland. This puts her in a very strong position for the match play rounds.
Kathryn Norris and Maddison Hinson-Tolchard will join Rudgeley in the match play, despite struggling somewhat in their qualifying rounds.
Norris got off to a positive start with a level-par opening round at Brisbane GC on Monday but she dropped several shots today to finish at +2.
Hinson-Tolchard didn’t card a birdie in her opening round, although an Eagle on the par-4 5th hole helped to limit any damage. Despite carding +2 for both rounds, today would have felt better thanks to a run of three birdies in five holes.
Jess Whitting suffered a heartbreaking end to her tournament when she stumbled on the 18th and finished with a double bogey. Unfortunately, this has seen her drop outside the top 32 qualifiers and she will not progress through to the match play.
