Australian Amateur: Corey Conners topples defending champion in third round
Corey Conners
ROSEBURY, Australia — Defending is difficult,
regardless of the size and
scale of the event. But when Tae Koh of New
Zealand stumbled upon No. 1
ranked amateur in the world Corey Conners in
Friday's round-of-16 matchup
at the Australian Men's Amateur, his task
became that much more
challenging.
Koh, the 2014 champion, ran into a buzz saw in
Conners at The Australian
Golf Club. The Ontario, Canada native won last
week's
Lake Macquarie
Amateur to add to his
already impressive resume over the last year. In
2014, Conners won the
Jones Cup, was medalist at the Argentine
Amateur, and was runner-up twice
(U.S. Amateur and North & South Amateur).
DAY ONE RECAP: Lucas Herbert
takes down Nick Marsh in Australian Amateur
opening round
STROKE PLAY: Nick Marsh, So-
Young Lee medal at Australian Amateur
Koh gave him a battle, however, taking the
match to the 18th hole before
losing 2-up. He had a close match in Friday
morning's round, as well,
defeating England's Paul Howard 1-up.
Conners will draw Australian Kevin Yuan in the
quarterfinals, which will begin
Saturday morning just after 7:00am. Yuan was
part of the most lopsided
match of the third round, in which he handed
Blake Collyer a 7-and-6 defeat.
Lucas Herbert, who knocked off medalist and
No. 1
seed Nick Marsh of
England in the opening round, lost his second
round
matchup to
Naoyuki Kataoka of Japan, 2-and-1. Herbert
needed a
playoff to even
secure the 64th seed in match play before
coming
back from 3-down
to upset Marsh.
The remaining six players to advance to
Saturday's quarterfinal matches are Jason
Gulasekharam of New Zealand who will face
fellow countryman Tyler Hodge, Cameron
Davis of New South Wales and his fourth-round
parter Jack Sullivan of Queensland, and
New South Wales natives Justin Warren and
Brayden Petersen.
For the current match play bracket and
Saturday's draw, please follow the link below.
ABOUT THE
Australian Men's Amateur
The Australian Men's and Women's
Amateur
Championships are Australia's oldest
Amateur
Golf Championships, with both having
been
played since 1894. Long held as a match play event,
in 2021 the format changed to 72 holes
of stroke play.
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