Ryan Fox and Benjamin Campbell sent packing in the New Zealand Amateur Championship
New Zealand’s top amateur players Ryan Fox and Benjamin Campbell were shown the door in the second round of New Zealand Match Play Championship at Christchurch on Sunday. The top six seeds participating in the tournament were also sent packing.
Fox, who won the Stroke Play phase of the tournament, was defeated in the knock out format by the Steven Heyes on the 19th hole. Fox has won the opening round of the Match Play by thrashing Tyler Lock by 3 & 2 while Campbell triumphed over Fraser
Wilkin with a 4 & 3.
Fox, who had won the Stroke Play with wide margin owning much to his hard hitting off the iron, was among the favourites to lift the title in the knockout format.
“Steven played really solid and deserved his win,” said Fox. “I played pretty poorly this afternoon, I don’t think I hit a good iron shot all round which was very disappointing at this stage.”
Campbell suffered defeat by the hands of Josh Munn, 1-up, and with the top guns out of the tournament, the field is now open to anyone who performs well on the final rounds.
The draws for the quarter finals will see Steven Heyes paired with Cameron Jones, Vaughan McCall against Josh Munn, James Betts against Mathew Perry and Sam An against Blair Riordan. Perry has recorded some impressive performances when he made it through
the quarter finals in last month’s Australian Amateur and also finished fourth in New Zealand Stroke Play title last year. He will be pitched against Sam An in the semi final if he is able to defeat James Betts in the quarter final.
Vaughan McCall is another contender who has all the ability to romp to a big win in the Match play format. He finished Top-16 in the Australian Amateur, recorded a Top-20 finish in the Riversdale Cup and finished for joint fourth in the Australian Amateur
Stroke Play Championship.
The only top ranked player left in the tournament in An, who is currently ranked 206th in the World. He won the Auckland Stroke Play title last year and will pose a formidable challenge to the rest of the aspiring competitors.
Top-32 players from the Stroke Play format of the tournament qualified to participate in the Match Play format.
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