Bateman edges Ropiha for win

Harry Bateman after his first professional win in England.

Masterton's Harry Bateman returned to the winner's list at the NWAdvice Paraparaumu golf pro-am tournament on Wednesday.

Not long returned from England where he had been playing with notable success on the EuroPro tour, Bateman fired a three-under 68 to take the honours by one shot from Taupo professional Troy Ropiha.

Bateman steadily worked his way to three under the card after the 15th hole, but had a slight hiccup when he made bogeys on 16 and 17. However, he regained his composure to finishing strongly and register birdies on the 18th and first holes, having started at his round on hole two.

His victory capped off some consistent form for Bateman who had finished second behind Josh Geary (Mount Maunganui) in the Masterton- Eketahuna 36-hole pro am last weekend and fourth equal behind Josh Carmichael (North Harbour) at the Martinborough pro am on Tuesday.

His rounds of 69 and 66 in the Masterton Eketahuna tourney saw him trail Geary by three shots while his 69 at Martinborough left six shots behind Carmichael who finished nine under in a round that included two eagles.

Bateman's first professional victory came in the EuroPro Tour's Buildbase Open last June where he carded a final round 69, three-under par, to snatch the title by one shot and claim the first prize of 10,000 ($19,800).

And the former Alfredton Primary School and Rathkeale College pupil captured the headlines again when he won the Coombes Johnson BMW tournament at Mount Maunganui last December, demolishing a quality field to win by three shots.

Ropiha's second at Paraparaumu was a hint that he was returning to his best form after a lean period while Geary and Carmichael maintained their high standards by sharing third with rounds of 69. The top four were, in fact, the only professionals to return under par scores on the demanding par-71 layout. Not helping their cause was a southerly breeze which got up to a two-club strength for the second half of the tournament, making scoring difficult.

Leading scores:- 68: Harry Bateman (Masterton); 69: Troy Ropiha (Taupo); 70: Josh Geary (Mount Maunganui), Josh Carmichael (North Harbour); 72: Doug Holloway (Hawke's Bay); 73: Joonsang Chang (Auckland), James Hamilton (Omanu); 74: Dominic Barson (New Plymouth), Vikrant Chandra (Fiji), Jong Yup Kim (Korea), Joel Macklin (Masterton), Todd Nicholson (Australia).