Concord’s Shelly Shin will meet Sock Hwee Koh from Singapore while Cameron Davis from Monash will face Royal Melbourne’s Thomas Power-Horan in the respective Women’s and Men’s Victorian Amateur Finals to be played at the Victoria Golf Club on Wednesday 17 December over 36-holes.
In sparkling sunshine and under a cloudless sky for most of the day on the superbly presented Victoria layout, ideal conditions were presented to players for the quarter and semi-finals of Victorian golf’s most prestigious amateur titles.
After accounting for Metropolitan’s Lukas Michel in their morning quarter-final, National Squad member Davis finally ended the superb run of Royal Melbourne 20-year-old Darcy Brereton in the semi-finals with a sound three and two victory. Davis played steadily throughout and while Brereton narrowed the margin to two holes after winning the 13th and 14th, a stray tee shot on 289-metre 15th proved costly in the overall result.
Qualifying seventh, twenty-one-year-old Power-Horan overcame Commonwealth’s Tom Couling three and two in the morning before playing solidly all afternoon in defeating Victoria’s Ben Eccles four and three in their semi-final. A Victorian State team member for the past two years, Power-Horan is the current Ivo Whitton Champion and won the Victorian Junior Masters in 2010.
The 2014 Victorian Amateur Women’s final puts Australia’s No. 1 ranked woman amateur Shelly Shin in an enthralling showdown with talented Singaporean Sock Hwee Koh. Sixteen-year-old Shin maintained her high quality play in disposing of Glenelg’s Jenny Lee two and one in the morning quarter-final before outlasting Victorian Women’s State Team Captain Jo Charlton from Metropolitan one-up in the afternoon in a classic battle.
Consecutive birdies on the eighth and ninth and a bogey from Charlton at the 313-metre 10th, saw Shin get to a three hole lead. After halving the 11thand 12th, Charlton staged a great fight back winning the 13th with a birdie and reducing the margin to a single hole with a par at the tricky 271 metre 15th. After halving the 16th and 17th with pars, Shin played a stylish second shot to within five metres at the par five 18th while Charlton’s long iron approach finished just over the green with the aid of the freshening southerly breeze.
While Charlton recovered to make the up and down for birdie, Shin calmly two-putted for the matching birdie and the victory. A member of Australia’s winning World Amateur Women’s Team earlier this year and winner last Sunday of the Port Phillip Women’s title, Shin will face tough opposition in her quest for her first Victorian Women’s Amateur crown.
After qualifying in sixth position at the Port Phillip, Sock Hwee Koh has impressed everyone with her impressive ball striking and neat short game over the Victorian Amateur match play rounds. After accounting for Metropolitan’s Grace Daniell three and two in the morning’s quarter-final, she again played well in defeating Celina Yuan from The Australian three and two.
The 2014 Men’s and Women’s Victorian Amateur Championship finals will commence at 7.30am (Men) and 7.40am (Women) on Wednesday 17 December at Victoria. The afternoon rounds are scheduled from 12noon.
Click here…> for all Results of the Men’s & Women’s Victorian Amateur Match Play Rounds;
Click here…> for the 2014 Men’s Victorian Amateur Match Play Draw;
Click here…> for the 2014 Women’s Victorian Amateur Match Play Draw;
For more information about the 2014 Victorian Men’s and Women’s Amateur Championship please click here.