Brett Coletta couldn’t quite bring home another trophy, but spearheaded Australia’s continued good Scottish run at the weekend’s St Andrews Links Trophy.
A week after Cameron John won the Scottish Strokeplay Championship as one of seven Aussies in the top 27, the Australian contingent enjoyed another four in the top 19 at St Andrews, with John and Blake Windred also making the cut before fading in the final round.
Coletta was one of six players to shoot all four rounds under par on the combination of the Old and New courses at the home of golf.
It was good enough to land the Golf Australian national squad member a tie for ninth at six under par, six shots behind the winner, Ireland’s Conor O’Rourke.
Fellow Melburnian David Micheluzzi carded three consecutive 70s to start the tournament, but closed with a 73 en route to a T13 finish at -4.
Sydney’s Travis Smyth was in the mix until the third round when he was unable to find a birdie until the last hole of the Old Course. He finished with 75-71 to be T15 at -3.
Victorian Blake Collyer was consistent and fired three birdies in his closing 70 to wrap up a solid week at -2 and T19.
John fought his way back after an opening double-bogey in the final round until dropping five shots in five holes from the 12th, including a triple-bogey seven on the tough 16th for a 77, a +3 total and a share of 38th.
Windred had a bit of everything – three birdies, two doubles and six bogeys – in his final-round 79, but clung on to T47 at seven over.
The Australian contingent plays an unoffical match against Scotland this week in Kilmarnock, then heads south to Wales for next week’s British Amateur Championship.