MARKS POINT, NSW, Australia (Jan. 23, 2011) -- Western Australia's Brady Watt has won the 2011 Greater Building Society Lake Macquarie International at Belmont following a great final round in the wind, while the other contenders faltered around him.
Watt won by four strokes from Anthony Murdaca and Cameron Smith.
Twenty-year-old Watt played superb golf in windy conditions. Watt, named Western Australia’s Junior Golfer of the year in 2009, carded a two under 70 in the final round to take his four round total to 276 – four ahead of Royal Queensland club member, 17-year-old Cameron Smith and 15 year old South Australian, Anthony Murdaca. Two years ago Watt won the Aaron Baddeley International Junior Championship at the Heritage Golf Club in Victoria but this was his first major win as a senior.
His first move as he walked off the final green victorious was to telephone his father in Perth. “I’m thrilled with the win. I’ve been playing golf with dad since I was 11,” he said. “I birdied the holes I needed to birdie today in tricky conditions.”
Watt played in the Lake Macquarie tournament last year and finished in 30th position. He clinched the title in the final round on the hard par 4 15th when he had a miraculous birdie. His drive finished in the right rough in a bad lie but he managed to wedge the ball to the front of the green 12 metres from the cup and then sank the putt.
New Zealand No. 1 amateur, Ben Campbell, was fighting out the finish with Watt until he had a disastrous triple bogey 7 on the 13th. Campbell finished with six under, the same score as the best of the local brigade, 17 year old Charlestown and The Australian member, Jake Higginbottom.
Top Australian amateur,Tasmanian Ryan McCarthy, had to pull out of the final round after dislocating his left shoulder in a surfing mishap on Saturday. McCarthy, one of the favourites to win the prestigious amateur event, was only five off the pace on 211 after rounds of 72, 67 and 72.
He was surfing with a group of friends at Redhead Beach when the accident occurred. “It was just a normal wave and I came out of it awkwardly,” a bitterly disappointed McCarthy said.
“I was hitting the ball well so I was looking forward to finishing today.”
McCarthy, his left arm in a sling, said he could face months of rehabilitation and the injury would keep him out of golf for some time.
ABOUT THE Lake Macquarie Amateur
Historic 72-hole stroke play championship with a
cut
after 36 holes; The Lake Macquarie Amateur
was
first played in 1958, and past winners includes
the
likes of Peter O’Malley (1986), Stephen Leaney
(1992), Geoff Ogilvy (1997), Brett Rumford
(1998), Nick Dougherty (2001), Chris
Campbell
(2002), Jarrod Lyle (2003-4), Marc Leishman
(2005) and more recently, Danny Lee (2008).
View Complete Tournament Information