Rudgeley and Naveed fly Australian flag at the Amateur Championships

19th Oct 2018

Kirsten Rudgeley and Hira Naveed have flown the Australian flag proud after both moving through to the Quarter-Finals of the Australian Amateur Championships on Friday afternoon.

Both West Australians stand alone as the only remaining Australian women competitors, with the day dominated by Japan and South Korean golfers at Lake Karrinyup.

Rudgeley led for majority of the 18 holes, beating out her more fancied opponent in Konomi Matsumoto from Victoria 3&2.

Naveed had to wait until nearly 6pm before finally defeating South Korean Selin Hyun 3&2, rounding out a terrific afternoon for the talented girls.

Wanneroo product Rudgeley was pleased to move into the next stage of the championships, with her basic game plan the key to her success.

I played pretty steady the whole way round, managed to keep it in play and hole a few putts, Rudgeley said.

The youngster is keen to keep improving and despite moving through the draw quietly, believes she has a strong chance of taking out the title.

“This week I have just played more consistent golf really. Kept myself in all the games and just managed to come out on top,” she said.

“My aim is just to win as many matches as I can. Winning the title would be nice but I think I have gone far enough to make it a good week.“

Josh Greer remains the only WA survivor from the week, highlighted by a victory early in the morning over fellow compatriot Min Woo Lee, before taking 20 holes to overcome Kyle Michel.

The Western Australian match up was the clear standout of the second round, with Min Woo and Greer going toe-to-toe down the back nine at Lake Karrinyup.

Greer led by one for much of the contest, however Min Woo used all his class to pull it back to all square heading down the 18th.

Min Woo tee shot went rightinto trees, while the young Greer stayed down the fairway. Despite a spectacular rescue from trouble, last year’s runner couldn’t recover, giving Greer a one-shot victory.

Greer continued his strong afternoon taking out Kyle Michel on the 20th hole of his third round match up.

The Scottish-born prodigy holed a putt from 5 feet, while Michel missed gifting the local victory in spectacular fashion.

Joseph Owen won his way through to the last 16 after a 4&2 win over Hayden Gulliver. However fell on the 21st in his third round encounter with Keta Nakjima, meaning his exits the tournament.

Connor McKinney couldn’t emulate his terrific opening three days, going down to Zach Murray by a hole in a tight affair, while Robbie Morrison was also desperately unlucky as he exited the tournament after a one hole defeat to Shae Wolls-Cobb.

Connor Fewkes was outclassed by New Zealander Jordan Woodall 4&3.

Josh Greer will tee off at 8.00am tomorrow morning, while the girls will start at 8.30am and 8.40am respectively.