It was a beautiful morning, with perfect golf conditions at Mount Lawley Golf Club for the women’s semi-finals and the men’s quarter finals for the WA state Amateur.
The first match to tee off was between Shaun Cameron (The Cut) and Adam Hatch (Royal Fremantle) proving an absolute tussle from beginning to end, going from one up to square constantly all morning. No one was willing to break, and the match went to the 21st hole, with Adam Hatch being victorious.
The second group of George Barclay (Joondalup) and Jarrad Tenni (Meadow Springs) was to be another battle to stir the interest of the crowds. Jarred was quick to get going being 2up after 8 but George won the 9th hole to turn 1 down. On the back nine Jarred got away from George and ended up winning the match 2 &1.
The third group of Alex Maxwell (Royal Fremantle) and Adam Brady (The Vines) saw some early birdies by Alex to quickly get to 4up after 8 holes. Unfortunately, Adam didn’t bring his best game to the first nine but did improve on the next nine however very quickly running out of holes and ultimately lost 4 & 3.
Finishing out the men’s games was the battle between Jayson Watson (Mount Lawley) and Josiah Edwards (Gosnells). This was a popular battle to watch for the members with hometown favourite Jayson in good form and ready to make his run for the trophy. Josiah however outperformed him and got the crucial putts when needed to be victorious 4 & 3.
The women’s semi-finals were almost like a round of pennants as it was a battle between, Mount Lawley and Joondalup. The first group away was Mia Lawson (Joondalup) and Isabella Leniartek (Mount Lawley). This quickly became a very competitive match, unfortunately both players struggled to read the greens to sink the crucial putts. Mia was able to establish an early lead and turned the first nine 2up with some solid steady golf. On the latter part of the back nine Isabella held off one dormy hole to win the 16th but unfortunately couldn’t sink her birdie putt on the 17th to keep the match alive and went down 3 & 1.
The final pairing of the women’s semi-finals was between Amanda Gan (Mount Lawley) and Celine Chen (Joondalup) with both women playing a competitive hard-fought match all day. Amanda was able to get the early break from Celine, turning the first nine holes 1up. It stayed very tight all throughout the back nine with no one able to make a clear break until Celine was able to win the 15th hole and go 2up. On the 17th hole Amanda holed a twelve-foot putt for birdie to keep the game alive and go down the 18th hole 1 down. Celine was able to produce a solid up and down from behind the green to secure her par, halve the hole and win 1up.
The afternoon saw the fight out for the semi-finals in the men’s, with the first group off being Alex Maxwell (Royal Fremantle) and Josiah Edwards (Gosnells).
It was game on from the beginning, with Alex holing a 25-foot birdie on the second hole to go 2up. But golf is a fickle beast and after Josiah hit a 6 iron for his second into the par 5, 3rd hole and making birdie, then a birdie on the 5th, it was all square. This gave Josiah the momentum he needed and by the 10th hole he was 3up and looking solid.
The back nine saw the scoring steady off as they went hole for hole, with Alex getting it back to 2 down by the 14th. On the 16th hole the game could have flipped in 30 seconds as it took almost the full 3 minutes to find Josiah’s drive off the tee. The ball had landed in the right bush and unfortunately found plenty of leaves to hide under. Discussions were held as to whether Neil Goddard, Golf Operations Manager from GolfWA was accidentally standing on it and he may well have been as he was otherwise occupied taking a photo of Josiah’s mother hiding behind a tree as she was too nervous to watch. Ball found and a great recovery made Josiah managed to scramble a four and Alex could only match it, so down to the 17th hole dormy. Unfortunately, Alex couldn’t make the 17th work and Josiah was victorious 3 & 1. Josiah said that the part of his game that made the difference was his wedge shots, “I felt pretty confident over them and just struck them right every time”.
The second round for the men was a tough battle between Adam Hatch (Royal Fremantle) and Jarrad Tenni (Meadow Springs), two men in the latter part of their 30s. Jarred was able to win the first hole to get an early lead but by the 4th hole Adam had brought it his way. Unfortunately, on the 9th hole Jarred lost his ball off the tee and was more than happy to pass and walk straight to the 10th giving Adam an easy 2up advantage.
Jarred birdied the 10th to claw one back but a bogie on the 12th unravelled his good work. The scores were to par till the 16th hole that once again brought out something special for these matches. Adam hit his tee shot just off the left fairway in line with the green, but it was in the natural Mount Lawley sands and twigs. Jarred played for safety off the tee with an iron sitting nicely in the middle of the fairway and hit a decent second to about 25 feet. Adam over in the sand and twigs managed to pitch his second just an inch over the bunker getting it to check four feet behind the hole. This shot certainly had the watching members very impressed, but to Adam it was just a chip. Unfortunately, Jarred couldn’t sink his birdie putt and Adam was straight in the middle, match all over 3 & 2. Adam said he was striking the ball better than he did in the qualifying rounds and that made a big difference, “both matches were very tough, my putting was good and with the critical putts I was confident and happy to just go at them”.
Tomorrow will see the men’s 36-hole final played off between Adam Hatch (Royal Fremantle) and Josiah Edwards (Gosnells) teeing off at 8:30am. Followed by the battle for women’s title between Celine Chen and Mia Lawson, being a Joondalup v Joondalup final, teeing off at 8:45am. 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.
