Dylan Perry and Celina Yuan have taken out the 2016 Men’s and Women’s Queensland Amateur Championships played at Pacific Harbour Golf Club last week, continuing NSW’s domination of interstate tournaments in 2016.
Perry was hot all week. After taking out the Men’s Stroke Play Championship on Tuesday, he eliminated the 5th, 8th, and 16th seeds on his way to the final. Standing in his way was Douglas Klein, his opponent in the final of the recent Australian Interstate series.
The match was a thriller. Perry had the upper hand from the outset, and had a 2-up lead early in the match after giving himself some great birdie opportunities.
Perry’s lead was extended on the 7th after nestling his approach shot to 3ft. The New South Welshman’s 3-up advantage continued as Klein was unable to reignite the form that saw him dominate his earlier matches.
Perry was in his groove making consecutive birdies to keep his 3-hole advantage over Klein until the par-5 14th, when Klein made a clutch birdie putt to bring the match back to 2-up with 3 to play.
The contest was decided however when Klein’s approach to the 17th ended up short in the left bunker, and with the Queenslander unable to bridge the gap. Perry was left with a two putt for the championship, which he calmly did, to record a 2&1win.
The match will go down as memorable for all those watching with 1st class respect shown between both players. Perry is now the 5th New South Welshman to win the Queensland Amateur Championship in the past seven years. He also joins Daniel Nisbet (2009) and Jason Day (2006) on an exclusive list of players who have won the Queensland Stroke Play and Amateur title double.
Celina Yuan had to fight all the way in the Women’s final against her Kiwi opponent Brittney Drylan.
The final looked to be headed Dryland’s way as she led the entire match, bar two moments.
Dryland held a 1-up advantage early until Yuan sunk a creaming 45ft putt on the 5th hole. Dryland took the lead back on the 8th and increased the lead on the 11th with another good putt.
Yuan had chances on the 12th and 13th however they fell short. The match remained a tense affair until the 16th hole, where the Australian GC member made a clutch 10ft to keep the match alive.
Dryland was unable to coax a putt to drop on the 17th to take the match, then with the pressure building, a couple of unfortunate events on the 18th saw Dryland struggle to find ‘dry land’, losing two balls in the greenside water hazard, which gave the hole to Yuan.
The match returned to the 18th for the second time and Yuan kept her composure holing a 15ft putt for victory and the 2016 Women’s Amateur title.
For full results, visit the event page.