The NSW players have had a great day at the Grange Golf Club in Adelaide, SA. Tee off times were brought forward to a 7 am shotgun start for all matches to try to beat the predicted 46 degree heat. Seventeen men and two NSW ladies qualified for Round 1 of the match play. Eleven men won their matches and both girls were winners. Shelly Shin was never headed and comfortably won her match with extremely consistent golf. Brother and sister Kevin and Celina Yuan were both victorious 5/4 and 2 up respectively. Their victories impressive considering they are some of the youngest and shortest hitting competitors. Harrison Endycott had a putt to win 4/3 but a dogged comeback from his opponent saw Harrison have to birdie the 20th hole to close the match. Allan Haughie from the ACT perhaps had the biggest victory of the day. Qualifying number 63 he beat the 2nd qualifier Kazuki Higa of Japan on the 20th. Cameron Davis and Matthew Wittenberg both had solid wins. Matthew was 2 down with four holes to play until impeccable golf, including a 230 meter 2 iron off the side of a sand hill onto the green closed out his match 1 up. Jordan Zunic took out fellow New South Welshman Jake Baker, as did Jarrod Freeman with Troy Moses. Big hitting Travis Smyth beat the highly credentialed Jack Sullivan 2/1. Issac Noh and Grant Booth hit the ball superbly for their comfortable wins. Blake Windred enters Round 2 to play national squad member Ryan Ruffles who defeated the number one qualifier this morning. In the men&aposs draw the first three qualifiers were knocked out as well as the number one qualifier in the ladies draw. This really opens up the draw and augers well for an exciting day tomorrow. For more information and results click on the links below.
Author: Update from Dean Kinney, National Coach - NSW