12 Dec 2022 | Amateur golf |
Top seeds book semi final berths at Vic Am
by Dane Heverin
Port Phillip Open Amateur champions Lukas Michel and Jeneath Wong are through to the semi-finals of the Victorian Amateur Championship after a wild day at Royal Melbourne Golf Club.
Competitors were greeted by howling winds and pelting rain which turned the difficulty up a few notches on Royal Melbourne's east course for Monday's Round of 16 and quarter-final matches, but the top seeds powered through as others fled for cover.
Two-time Australian Junior Amateur champion Wong was dominant in her 5&3 triumph over Queenslander Ilani Short before overcoming fellow Victorian Jazy Roberts 2&1 in the afternoon.
The Metropolitan Golf Club member is out to break a streak of back-to-back runner-up finishes - to Kelsey Bennett and Kirsten Rudgeley - in this event, but first she will face stiff competition from South Australian Amelia Whinney in their semi-final clash.
Whinney has already knocked out one of the big names in the field by defeating state teammate and Karrie Webb scholarship recipient Caitlin Peirce by two holes in their Round of 16 clash. Her victory was a reverse of the result from the South Australian Amateur final in September before she bettered Queenslander Hannah Reeves 4&3 in the quarter-finals.
Like his fellow Metropolitan member Wong, Michel is also striving to go one better than his best finish of runner-up to Andre Lautee in 2019 - the same year he won the US Mid-Amateur.
Michel, who works in golf course design most notably on the Seven Mile Beach project in Hobart, was very consistent in winning both his Round of 16 match against Caleb Bovalina and his quarter-final against Abel Eduard 3&2, and he will need to continue that form against New South Welshman Jeffrey Pullen.
In the other semi-finals, Abbie Teasdale will be a player to keep an eye after she defeated Golf Australia Women's Order of Merit winner Justice Bosio 2&1 in their quarter-final match, and she will take on New South Wales' Claire Shin.
Meanwhile, Joseph Owen and Declan O'Donovan will face off in the other men's semi-final after they each recorded a pair of tight victories today.
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