L-R: David Micheluzzi, Stephanie Bunque,
Hannah Green & Cameron John.
Golf Australia photo
In sparkling sunshine and under a cloudless sky
for most of the day on the superbly presented
Kingston Heath layout, ideal conditions were
presented to players for the quarter and semi-
finals of Victorian golf’s most prestigious amateur
titles.
After accounting for Metropolitan club mate Aiden
Didone in their morning quarter-final, Victorian
State Team member Micheluzzi finally ended the
superb run of Royal Perth 16-year-old Fred Lee in
the semi-finals with a sound five and three
victory. 19-year-old Micheluzzi played steadily
throughout the day and was two-under par when
the semi-final concluded at the 15th. A runner-up
at this year’s New South Wales Amateur
Championship and a current member of the
Victorian Institute of Sport Golf Program,
Micheluzzi will be looking to become the 68th
winner of the prestigious Men’s Victorian Amateur
Championship.
In the other half of the men’s draw and after
qualifying seventh, 16-year-old John overcame
Victorian State team member Brett Coletta from
Sandhurst on the 18th in a high quality morning
encounter before playing solidly all afternoon to
defeat fellow Commonwealth member Zach
Murray four and three in their semi-final.
John burst out of the blocks against Murray racing
to a five-hole lead after the opening six played
thanks to birdies at the first, second and fourth
and par golf at the others. While the 2013 Men’s
Victorian Amateur Champion steadied to reduce
the margin to three holes with birdies at the par-
five seventh and 398-metre eighth, John regained
control with birdies at the ninth and 10th go back
to five-up.
John’s only bogey for the semi-final at the 509
metre par-five 12th saw Murray cut the margin to
four-holes before pars on the 13th and 14th were
enough for this year’s winner of both the Victorian
Junior Masters and Victorian Boys Championship
to progress to the final. However tomorrow’s final
won’t be the talented junior’s first in open
competition having also won the 120th Argentine
Amateur Championship during November.
The 2015 Victorian Amateur Women’s final puts
Australia’s number two ranked woman amateur
Hannah Green in an enthralling showdown with
the talented 18-year-old Stephanie Bunque. A
runner-up to Lydia Ko at this year’s New Zealand
Women’s Open, Green was in stellar form in
defeating leading women’s qualifier Rebecca Kay
two and one in the morning quarter-final, which
included going through the opening nine in three
under par. Celebrating her 19th birthday later this
week, Green was then four-under in powering
through her afternoon semi-final seven and six
against Queensland’s Dee-Dee Taylah Russell.
Bunque’s path to the final was also impressive
with a morning quarter-final win over Peninsula-
Kingswood’s Soo Bin Park three and one before an
enthralling semi-final against fellow 18-year-old
and club mate Olivia Kline in the afternoon. Team
mates as well in this year’s winning Victorian Girls
Team, Bunque held a narrow margin against Kline
for much of the afternoon after a par secured an
early lead at the second.
A par to Kline momentarily squared the match at
the fifth before Bunque parred the sixth to regain
the lead and the increase the margin to two-holes
with a birdie at the short par-three 10th. Kline is
a wonderful competitor and responded
immediately with a win at the 11th before Bunque
birdied again at the 12th. Kline took the 13th and
then squared the match with a birdie four at the
14th.
The see-sawing match continued as Bunque won
the 15th after both players struggled with the
right greenside bunker before Kline won the 16th
with a par to level proceedings once again. After
both players found the 17th green in regulation,
Bunque’s birdie try from 10 metres touched the
hole but somehow failed to drop and saw the pair
deadlocked heading down the final hole. After
both players found the right rough from the tee,
Bunque recovered the better in finishing just
short of the green while Kline found the right
green side bunker.
Bunque then played the key shot of the semi-final
with a deft chip to a metre while Kline overshot
the green with her difficult long bunker shot.
Despite Kline chipping back inside a metre,
Bunque solidly stroked home her par putt to take
out a great semi-final.
A winner of this year’s South Australian Women’s
Amateur and undefeated in this year’s Australian
Girls Interstate Teams matches, Bunque will
provide tough opposition to her Western
Australian rival in their quest to win Victoria’s
premier Women’s Amateur crown.
View results for Victorian Amateur
ABOUT THE
Victorian Amateur
The low 16 finishers in the Port Phillip Amateur qualify
for elimination match play in the Victorian Amateur.
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