Charles Pilon (Golf Australia photo)
In the foosteps of Jason Day, Wagga Wagga’s
Charles Pilon is the men’s Australian Amateur
Championship medallst.
Pilon, 17, fired an even-par 72 at tough
Kingswood yesterday morning, then watched the
six-
under-par 66 he shot at Metropolitan stand up in
a
delayed round marred by wild weather.
Overnight leader Kevin Yuan, among those
caught in the delay, returned this morning and
faltered with four bogeys in his closing six holes
to
slide to three under a day after his amateur
course
record 64 at nearby Metropolitan.
Pilon, who like world No.2 before him,
attends
the Hills International School in Queensland. He
has
qualified for his second straight matchplay phase
of
the #AusAm after finishing 12th in strokeplay last
year.
He will take the No.1 seed into the
matchplay,
with his opponent Haydn Barron after the big
West
Australian was one of four men through a
cliffhanger
15-man playoff.
Pilon was thrilled with the
“awesome” result.
“It’s a great confidence booster
going into matchplay. I went out at Kingswood
yesterday and just tried to get it around in square
and I did exactly that,” the Golf Queensland
state team member said.
“I’m very happy … it’s very
good for my world rankings and give me a bit
more
status (towards future tournaments). That’s
another really big advantage of the result.”
The affable Pilon said he was fortunate to
have
played in the calmer part of Wednesday’s
wild weather and finish his round before play was
suspended.
“It was good to get that off in the
morning before the wind and heat of the
afternoon –
it definitely helped me a lot. It picked up the last
couple of holes, so I can sympathise with the
afternoon guys.”
The round of the day belonged to emerging
Queenslander Anthony Quayle, whose 67 at
Metropolitan franked the form he showed at last
weeks’ Master of the Amateurs without any
tangible success.
“That’s been coming, for
sure,” Quayle said.
“I feel last week at Royal Melbourne I
was pretty close and the scores didn’t reflect
how I played.
Then I played solid in the first round (at
Kingswood) and couldn’t quite get it done, so
it was nice today to have a few under and have a
score that reflects how I’m playing.”
Quayle, who won the Pacific Northwest
Amateur
last year in Oregon, likes his chances in the
matchplay, too.
“I’m a very confident match
player. The tournament I won in the US last year
was a top 64 matchplay event against a pretty
strong
field, too, so I feel like I can do it again,” he
said.
“I like matchplay – I feel like I’ve
got a pretty good game plan going into it and a
good
mindset of how I need to approach it and get on
top
of my opponent, so … if I believe I can win every
match, there’s no reason I can’t get it
done.”
Remarkably, a 15-way tie for the 61st-
64th slots
into the matchplay was resolved in just one hole
when Victorians David Micheluzzi and Blake
Collyer,
Perth’s Barron and young Queenslander
Lochie Coleborn who were the only players to
make
par on the tough par-four 10th hole.
WOMEN'S AUSTRALIAN
AMATEUR
A four-way women’s playoff for three
berths took two holes to resolve with
Queenslander
Lauren Mason eliminated with a bogey on the par-
three 11th.
New Zealand’s Alanna Campbell made a
par to advance after both made bogeys on the
10th,
with birdie and par good enough on that hole for
Hannele Mikkola, of Finland, and Victorian Lisa
Teo,
respectively.
story courtesy Golf Australia
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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