Garvey, 16, wins strokeplay title and eyes double
Amelia Garvey is eyeing the coveted golfing double after she cruised to victory in the New Zealand women’s amateur strokeplay at Hastings Golf Club yesterday
The Canterbury 16-year-old secured a six-stroke victory over New Zealand international Chantelle Cassidy to etch her name on the Mellsop Cup alongside the likes of Lynnette Brooky and Lydia Ko.
Garvey, the Burnside High School student playing out of the Kaiapoi club, carded a final round of fourunder-par 70 to increase her lead, while Waikato’s Cassidy signed for a final round of 74.
Another Canterbury golfer, Juliana Hung, fired the best final round of 69 to leave her one shot behind Cassidy in third place.
‘‘It’s amazing, words can’t describe how good it feels to get the job done this week. To win one of the biggest events in New Zealand is awesome,’’ Garvey said, after completing a 72-hole total of 281.
‘‘My parents are always there for the support and I can’t wait to call them, they will be stoked for me.’’
A big year looms for Garvey who hopes to build on her dominant victory in Hawke’s Bay.
‘‘I’m heading over to Aussie in a couple of weeks for the Aussie juniors so it would be nice to perform well there and for the New Zealand team in the Queen Sirikit in May.
‘‘Of course, I also can’t wait for the New Zealand amateur at Russley in Christchurch, it would be awesome to do the double.’’
Starting the back nine Garvey had a four-shot lead which Cassidy started to eat into with a birdie on the 10th, and after Garvey dropped shots on the 13th and 14th holes, Cassidy had reduced the deficit to only two.
A wayward drive by Cassidy on 15 led to a bogey and Garvey pounced, rolling in a 3 metre birdie putt to return the margin to four.
From there she went from strength to strength hitting it to a metre for an easy birdie on the par 3 16th, before using her length to make comfortable two putt birdies on the par five finishing holes for the biggest win of her young career.
‘‘I was hitting a lot of fairways today and putting myself in good spots to attack the pins,’’ Garvey said.
‘‘It meant I didn’t have to do too much with my putter.’’