Date: November 23, 2015
Author: Martin Blake

Albatross lifts Lisk into Open field

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It's a very rare day when you start your round with an albatross, the rarest of birds in golf, let alone when it sets you up to qualify for your first Emirates Australian Open. But that's what happened to 20-year-old Adelaide amateur Matt Lisk today.

Lisk holed out with a six-iron with his second shot of the day at the 442-metre par-five first hole in Open qualifying at Carnarvon Golf Club in Sydney's western suburbs today. He had no clue that he had achieved his first-ever albatross until he walked up to the hole and checked.

"I actually thought it was in the back bunker,'' he told ausopengolf.com today. "The guys on the next tee didn't wave or anything, so I didn't think anything of it. I walked up, had a look in the bunker, then checked the hole and it was in there. I thought I might have used up all my luck early, but then again you have to think you're in for a good day when that happens.''

Lisk, who has represented South Australia at the past two Interstate Series and who captained SA's juniors to a national title in 2012, went on to shoot a seven-under par 65 to secure one of the three spots available from Carnarvon for the Open, which starts at The Australian on Thursday.

He has only played The Australian once — at the Australian amateur titles earlier this year — and missed the cut. But he is excited about the rest of the week and his first professional event. "It's a good test and it's long,'' he said. "If you're hitting the ball well you're a chance. I'm really looking forward to seeing how I go playing under that pressure.''

Eight places in the final field were on offer at three clubs today — Ryde-Parramatta, Carnarvon and Liverpool. One who missed out was Australian Masters runner-up Andrew Evans, the 19-year-old who had a putt to push Peter Senior to a playoff at Huntingdale on Sunday. Another who missed out was Ewan Porter.

QUALIFIERS (8 positions)

Ryde Parramatta

Austin Bautista (NSW), Geoff Drakeford (VIC)

Carnarvon

Matthew Lisk (SA), Jason King (NSW), David Randall (NSW)

Liverpool 

Grant Thomas (NSW), Daniel Bringolf (NSW), Mitch Davis (NSW)

Alternates

1.     Tae Koh (NZL)
2.     Jonathon Painter (NSW)
3.     Ewan Porter (NSW)