Schulze chases amateur championships hat-trick

SIXTY- EIGHT competitors have entered the 105th Men’s and Women’s Amateur Championship of Tasmania, teeing off on Saturday at Tasmania Golf Club.

Two-time champion Mark Schulze will start firm favourites for the title. Locals Nathan Gatehouse and Andrew Phillips will be contenders, along with Zach Jansen, a plus two handicapper from Southport Golf Club in Queensland, one of 11 mainland competitors.

The women’s championship will also be keenly contested, with Grace Kim of New South Wales starting favourite.

Standing in the 16-year-old Avondale Golf Club member’s path will be 19-year-old local Georgia Milbourne, Royal Hobart Golf Club’s Hallie Meaburn and Prospect Vale’s Lily Caelli, who represent the fu- ture of women’s golf in Tasmania. Adele Huggard from Victoria, Isabelle Taylor from Queensland and Subin Wui from New Zealand are also solid competitors.

The leading 16 men and eight women who emerge from the 36-hole qualifying rounds will decide the championship through elimination match-play. The event concludes next Tuesday with two 36-hole finals. A NUMBER of Tasmanians were in action in South Australia last week at the Australian Mid Amateur Championships.

The 54-hole Golf Australia event for players aged 30 to 54 was conducted at the spectacular Links Lady Bay.

Launceston Golf Club’s Josh Molendyk was the best performed of the Tasmanians, finishing runner-up, two strokes behind Mark Bouton of Victoria. THE Men’s Senior Amateur Championship of Tasmania tees off today at Mowbray Golf Club, with 55 competitors vying for the title held local Michael Leedham, who is hoping to capture his seventh crown. The event has been running since 1995 and this is the 17th time Mowbray has hosted it. The 54-hole Australian Senior Order of Merit event is contested over three days and concludes on Friday. BETH Batchelor and Helen Fox of Orford took out this year’s Bronze Stableford at the Devonport Golf Club on Monday, winning by five points from George Town Golf Club. The individual title went to Moorina’s Tania Thompson. MAURICE Keating, Ian Lloyd and Gregory Stevenson of Elderslie Golf Club won this year’s Southern Country Interclub. The individual title went to Colebrook’s Colin Higson.