Hye-jin Choi
(Nova Scotia Golf Association Photo)
VICTORIA, Australia (January 18, 2017) -- The Korean
challenge keeps coming at the Australian Amateur
Championship, presented by Swinging Skirts – just from
another angle on day two.
World No. 4 Hye-jin Choi carved out a superb 5-
under-par round of 68 at a windswept Yarra Yarra, to
finish as medallist at 10-under.
Choi was outrageously good to be 6-under
through 10 holes, but cooled off and just edged
compatriot and U.S. Women's Amateur champion Eun
Jeung Seong by two strokes to nab top seed for match
play.
Their countrywoman Hyun-kyung Park was third,
while overnight leader Ga-young Lee, also of Korea, had
a quadruple-bogey nine on her second to last hole to
finish at 6-under.
That score left her tied fourth with the young
woman who might become the chief Australian flag flyer
for the rest of the week.
Gold Coaster Karis Davidson had a stellar finish
today to underline lessons she’s learnt previously
against the might of the Koreans.
Davidson, a regular Australian representative
overseas in the past two years, said those trips – and
the experiences they’ve provided – would be invaluable
this week.
“I’ll be happy to take the fight to them, for sure,”
Davidson said of the Koreans.
“They are such incredible players, I’ve definitely
learned a lot from off them in the tournaments we’ve
played.
“I know how hard they train and they’re physically
advanced compared to a few of us (with their) bodies
more muscly and advanced.
“But I’ve been working a lot with my swing,
trying to get it more stable and practicing really hard on
my game. It’s showing right now with my results.
“And that experience of international tournaments
helps. You learn so much and even if you don’t play
well, you learn the most from that and I definitely think
it (travel) has helped me.”
Davidson fell to 2-over through 10 holes at
Kingswood on Wednesday after her opening four-under-
par 69 at
Yarra Yarra on Tuesday.
But Davidson, a member at Sanctuary Cove,
regained her composure and fired four birdies in her last
seven holes, including chipping in from a bunker on the
par-three sixth.
“I guess I just got into rhythm and started hitting it
well,” she said.
“It’s a pretty good achievement in one of biggest
tournaments in Australia. And doing well, at least in the
first stage, is nice and might give me some kind of
advantage.
“My initial goal was to make the cut – I know
there’s a lot of good players come to this tournament
and it’s kind of like the U.S. Amateur in that you never
know in the match play.”
Davidson, who stunned many when she made the
final against Minjee Lee at The Grange in 2014, said her
revised goal was to reach the top eight.
“But you never know. Nobody expected me to do
that when I was 15, so you never know who you’ll play
and this field is very deep."
At the other end of the final 32 to make it, Victorian
Gabi Ruffels survived a dramatic four-hole playoff to
nab the last spot from Singapore’s Callista Chen.
Chen missed a makable par putt on the second
playoff hole before the young Aussie did likewise on the
third.
But a two-putt for Ruffels on the fourth extra hole
proved enough.
“I was pretty nervous … I’d missed a three-foot
putt for
a win on the third playoff hole, so I just tapped it down
to a foot and it was good,” said Ruffels, who thought
her goose was cooked after an 82 at Kingswood earlier
in the day.
“I was good yesterday (72 at Yarra Yarra) but I
didn’t think that would be good enough today … so I’m
just really happy I could get through.”
The women’s match play starts on Thursday.
ABOUT THE
Australian Women'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.
View Complete Tournament Information