On face value, the Australians’ scores in the opening round of the US Amateur Championship are promising.
On closer inspection, there’s still plenty to be done for our five-strong contingent to advance to the match play phase of this ultra-competitive event.
Perth’s Curtis Luck leads the Aussie charge, firing four birdied in an opening two-under-par 68 on the North Course of Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
But with hot scoring all around him, the Cottesloe Golf Club prodigy is sitting just T14 and having played the statistically easier course on which 11 of the top 13 players began the two-day shootout.
Tennessee’s Dawson Armstrong leads the field with a stellar 64 on the North Course, with just the top 64 to advance after tomorrow’s second round.
Among those tied for 31st on 69 is Cameron Davis, the Sydneysider having three times had his score to three under par before a pair of late bogeys on the tough South Course.
His fellow New South Welshman Harrison Endycott similarly had a good score going on the South Course, twice pushing to two under before a double-bogey on the 15th and bogey on the 16th reduced him to a one-over-par 71.
US Boys’ champion Min Woo Lee, of Perth, made two birdies on his homeward first nine on the South Course, but they didn’t offset his five bogeys among a 73.
Melbourne’s Karl Vilips, on the North Course, was an impressive one under through 12 holes until a tough finish including three bogeys and a double on his last, the ninth, dropped him to 74.
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