Geoff Drakeford and Daniel Hoeve share the lead at Mandurah Easter Amateur Championship
Geoff Drakeford and Daniel Hoeve both struck rounds of three-under, 69 to share the first round lead at the Mandurah Easter Amateur Championship being played in Western Australia. Two more players, Michael Dennis and Kalem Richardson, are tied for the second
spot with two-under Par, one shot behind the leaders.
Another pair, Braden Becker and Callan O’Reilly, are tied for the fourth with one-under, 71, after a lacklustre display in the opening round on the difficult Mandurah course. Only six players were able to break Par 72 layout of the Mandurah Country Club.
The timings of the Mandurah Easter Amateur Championship has directly collided with the New Zealand Amateur Tournament being played in Christchurch and while some of the key players of the world Amateur Rankings were not participating, many on the field failed
to capitalise on the opportunity to score better in the opening round.
There are only six top ranking Australian Amateur players who are participating in the event which raises several questions on the status of the event which is also an Australian National Selection event. World number six, Benjamin Campbell and ace kiwi
golfer, Ryan Fox, were participating in the National event in Christchurch. Fox went ahead to win the stroke play phase of the tournament on Saturday April 23rd. The highest rank amateur golfer participating at the Mandurah Amateur this week was
number 18 Matt Stieger, who had a disappointing day with three-over, 75. He is joint 23rd, six shots behind the leaders. Brett Drewitt, the second highest participant in the world ranking at 54, submitted for a one-over, 73 to settle for a shard
13th spot.
The Australian Amateur Tour will be coming under scathing criticism because there was not one participant in the top 100 world ranking other than Drewitt and Campbell who showed up to participate in the Mandurah Easter Amateur, which itself is a 94
world ranked tournament. However, the Mandurah Easter Amateur has an illustrious amateur titles history and past champions include the likes of Geoff Ogilvy and Matthew Griffin.
The cut will come into play after the opening two rounds. The final 36 holes of the tournament will be played on Monday.
Tags: