Kiwi amateur excited after making cut
Kiwi amateur golfer Amelia Garvey had a smile a mile wide as she threw her hands up in the air ‘‘yah, I made it to the weekend’’.
Still in her final year at Burnside High School in Christchurch, Garvey comfortably secured passage into the final two days of the New Zealand Women’s Open with a solid one-under par 71 in the second round on Friday.
Backing up an impressive twounder par 70 opening round in blustery afternoon conditions on Thursday, the 17-year-old’s solid round saw her in a tie for 29th place and made her the second best placed amateur with around half the field in the clubhouse at the Windross Farm course near Auckland.
And with Lydia Ko still sitting at two-under midway through her second round, it also meant Garvey was the joint-leading Kiwi with the tournament host and topranked player at the LPGAsanctioned event.
Garvey had four birdies in relatively calm Friday morning conditions and although she mixed that with three bogeys, including two in the final three holes, she cut a very satisfied figure after walking off the 18th green.
‘‘It’s awesome,’’ Garvey said. ‘‘Just to be able to play more than two rounds and get the full experience at an LPGA event, it’s going to be cool.
‘‘I just feel more comfortable out there than I thought I was going to. The first tee shot there was a bit of nerves but once I got into things I was just able to have fun and enjoy it.
‘‘I’m really happy with the number I’m at and hopefully I’ll have some good rounds on the weekend.’’
Garvey began from the first tee in the second round and picked up two shots in her first five holes to move to four-under.
Her first bogey of the day came at the par four 10th but the 2017 New Zealand Strokeplay champion responded strongly with back-toback birdies and could have gone to six-under and into the top five had a four-to-five foot birdie chance at the par three 13th not narrowly slid by.
A couple of late slip-ups with bogeys at 16 and 17 meant Garvey had slipped a little by the time she tapped in for par at 18.
But having missed the cut at her two previous NZ Opens, there was not an ounce of disappointment.
❚ New Zealand Women’s Open leader Belen Mozo stretched her lead with a stunning hole-in-one at Windross Farm, but it all came a day early.
When the ball trickled in on the par 3 13th, the Spaniard danced for joy then rushed to kiss the luxury black Infiniti car that was a prize for a hole-in-one on that hole. Sadly for her, the car could be won only on the weekend