Date: April 04, 2008
Author:

Double coup for Boys’ Amateur Champion Nisbet

On what will go down as a memorable day in the young life of Daniel Nisbet, the talented Queenslander held on to win the Australian Boys&apos Junior Amateur title before being selected for the second successive year to represent his country at the Toyota World Junior Golf Team Championship. Nisbet fired a final round 69 to hold off a spirited challenge by West Australian Aidan Bae. The enthralling duel was a fitting end to the tournament and a carbon-copy of the battle for the Australian Junior of Merit which was also won by Nisbet in 2007. The champ started the week in fine form, moving out to a share of the opening round lead before wrestling his way to the top of the leaderboard, which is where he remained despite a hearty challenge. Bae did well to remain in contention after an opening round 74 threatened to scupper his title hopes before they had a chance to blossom. At three-over he was six shots off the pace at one stage before making his way through the field, thanks mostly to a second-round 66. The West Australian maintained the pressure throughout the final round before succumbing with a gallant 71 to trail Nisbet by three-strokes. Nisbet said, “I was fortunate enough to win the Aaron Baddeley Junior event in China late last year but it&aposs an even better feeling to finally win an event in Australia. “I am really looking forward to the months ahead. Hopefully I can keep playing good golf and get the opportunity to keep representing my country, because it&aposs something that I am extremely proud of.” In a double coup for this week&aposs frontrunners, the Australian team for the Toyota World Junior was announced at the presentation and suitably featured the top-three players from the action at Spring Valley Golf Club. Daniel Nisbet (Qld), Aidan Bae (WA) and Bryden Macpherson (Vic) were selected along with Brendan Smith (NSW) to represent Australia at Chukyo Golf Club from June 18-21. The boys will be looking to improve on the efforts of their countrymen who finished third behind Sweden and Norway last year. Nisbet was part of the four-man contingent and is eligible to return as he is under the age eligibility cut-off of 19. The team will have some time to gel at the Trans Tasman Cup in Wellington, New Zealand from May 1-2 as Nisbet, Macpherson and Smith were originally selected in the Junior Boys&apos category while Bae was recently called up to replace the injured Tim Hart. Director of Elite Development, Golf Australia Peter Knight said, “We decided to stick with the team originally selected the Trans Tasman Cup as we believe they possess the ability and character to perform at an international level. “The impromptu addition of Aidan Bae adds another dimension to the team and we believe he is the best player to replace Tim who will unfortunately miss out due to injury. Hopefully the boys can build on our first ever performance at the event last year and go one or even two places higher. “Their strong performance at this week&aposs Amateur certainly vindicates their selection and gives us confidence they will be ready to compete in Japan against some of the world&aposs best young players.” Golf Australia would like to thank Spring Valley Golf Club in Victoria for staging the Australian Boys&apos Amateur Championship, in particular General Manager Robert Sim, Course Superintendent Hayden Mead and House Manager Sam West. The course was in superb condition and stood up to the testing Melbourne weather for the duration of the event. Thank you also to the rules officials who were on hand all week courtesy of the Victorian Golf Association. Click here to view a final leaderboard