Australian Amateur 2010

In March this year, four players in the Taiwan National Squad (two boys, two girls) that I used to coach travelled to Perth for the Australian Amateur Championship. This event is held over four rounds of stroke play on Cottesloe Golf Club for the girls and Lake Karrinyup and Mount Lawley Golf Club for the boys. The top 32 players from the stroke play championship qualify to play knockout matchplay to determine the Australian Amateur Champion. Last year, Tsai Pei Ying was runner up in this event so I was hoping that one of these four could go one better this year.

Let me talk about the girls championship first. The two players playing were Yi Chen Liu and Hsuan Yu Yao and both of these girls worked very hard when I was in Taiwan and improved a lot so I was hopeful that they would play well. They both played solidly in the stroke play section with Yi Chen Liu shooting rounds of 71, 72, 72 and 73 to finish equal second and Hsuan Yu Yao scoring 74, 73, 73 and 74 to finish in equal sixth place. I was proud of their good scores as they both qualified easily but was also disappointed to realise that they were both in the same quarter of the match play draw. This meant that they would play each other in the quarter final if they both won their early matches.

As I feared would happen, both of the girls won their first two matches and faced each other in the quarter final. This was good, in a way, for Taiwan golf as at least one player would be in the semi-final but it would have been nicer to see them playing off against each other in the final. In a close fought match Hsuan Yu Yao prevailed in the match 2 up and progressed to the semi final. In this match she met the eventual champion, Stacey Keating, and was unfortunately beaten. I am extremely proud of both girls and I know they will use the experience to further improve and progress their golf.

In the boys championship the two boys from Taiwan competing were Chien Yao Hung and Chi Hsien Hsieh. Unfortunately, with stroke play scores of 69, 78, 71 and 80 Chi Hsien Hsieh missed out on qualifying for the matchplay by two strokes. With a disapointing last round of 80 I hope he will learn from the experience and be a better player. Chien Yao Hung played solidly during the strokeplay and qualified in 20th place for the matchplay by shooting scores of 71, 71, 77 and 72.

After a tight first round where he won on the 21st hole he won his next two matches by the comfortable margins of 5 & 4 and 5 & 3. These results placed him in the semi-final against Matt Jager. After a tough and tight match Chien Yao Hung was beaten on the last hole. It was close all day and I was proud that Chien Yao Hung played so well and was only just beaten by the eventual champion.

Overall, the trip to Perth was beneficial to all players and I am sure they learnt a lot during the tournament.

Until next time,

Brent