Aina Fujimoto shot 4-under 69 at Keysborough Golf Club to lead the Australian Women's Amateur Championship. Jazy Roberts carded a 3-under 70 nearby at Yarra Yarra and was joined in a tie for second by 15-year-old Amelia Harris, just a shot back.
Harris’s performance in the women’s amateur as a 15-year-old is remarkable but, at the same time, predictable because she has been earning rave reviews for some time now, a prolific winner of junior tournaments.
Playing her home course, she made three consecutive birdies between 7 and 9 and then two more on the trot at the 16th and 17th, where she bombed a drive to throwing distance from the green and wedged in close.
At that point, she had joined the lead at 4-under before an untimely mistake at the last. “Oh yeah, but then I three-putted,” she said of her bogey at No. 18 which sent her back to second place.
Although she will be across at Keysborough on Wednesday, the tournament returns to her home course at Yarra Yarra later in the week, and it is a bonus for her. “It’s really helpful because I know where I can use the driver and which way the greens slope,” she said.
As for 18-year-old Roberts, she came in with no expectations and plotted her way around Yarra Yarra, the course playing tougher than expected.
Soon to represent Australia at the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific event in Thailand, it is no surprise to see her contending; she finished top-15 in the ISPS HANDA Australian Open in December and won the amateur women’s section of the Sandbelt Invitational as well.
“It was really tricky out there with the wind,” said Roberts. “When it was into (the wind) the holes were so long and I managed to get away with par on those holes,” she said.
Japan inevitably sends world-class amateurs down to Australia, including the women's winner in 2023, and Aina Fujimoto’s opening 4-under 69 at Keysborough put her on top of the women’s field.
The 16-year-old Fujimoto finished T6 in the Master of the Amateurs in Melbourne last weekend.
“Today is a good feeling,” she said. “I had momentum from last week to this week.”
She is a shot ahead of Harris, Roberts, Master of the Amateurs winner Rianne Malixi, and another Japanese player, Momika Shinchi.