KEY POINTS:
Rotorua teenager Danny Lee became the first 16-year-old for almost 50 years to win the national amateur matchplay title when he beat Nick Gillespie from Hastings 7 and 5 in the final at Hamilton Golf Club yesterday.
The previous youngest winner was Titirangi's Walter Godfrey, who took the
championship on the same St Andrew's course in 1958 and went on to a professional career in Australia.
Lee birdied the first hole of the 36-hole final and was never headed. He was five up at halfway and when the match finished on the 31st hole he was one under the card.
It caps a great year for the Rotorua player, who has won the national under-23 title, the South Island championship and two tournaments in Australia.
Next week he heads to Korea for the Maekyung Open, a professional tournament won by fellow Kiwi Eddie Lee as an amateur four years ago.
Yesterday, Danny Lee's golf was steady rather than brilliant as the 18-year-old Gillespie, who is the North Island champion, struggled with his accuracy off the tee.
"This morning I played pretty well and Nick struggled," said Lee. "In the afternoon I was just trying to make par and keep it going. It was the matchplay I wanted to win because it's more important."
Lee, who is home-schooled because of his golf commitments, has his sights set on representing New Zealand next year at the Eisenhower world amateur championships in Adelaide.
Young New Zealand players clearly outplayed their Australian counterparts in perfect conditions throughout the week.
The Aussies won the low-key foursomes, but Hamilton's James Gill won the strokeplay title and Lee and Gillespie fought out the first all-Kiwi matchplay final since Ben Gallie beat Matt Peters at Mt Maunganui in 2001.
Gill survived until the semifinals of the matchplay before being beaten by Lee on the final green.
Gillespie eliminated the Australian matchplay champion, Rohan Blizard, by the same margin.
It was a tough week for Gillespie, son of former national cricket rep Stu Gillespie. He finished 15th in the strokeplay, then had to play 40 holes before he advanced to the quarter-finals.
"I was stoked to get as far as the final," he said. "I was knackered at the end of the semis.
"I was behind the eight ball at lunch in the final. You can't give a player of the quality of Danny Lee a start like that. I had no confidence with my driver. I've no idea where anything's going at the moment."
* NZ Golf is in the final stages of selecting its new chief executive, and is expected to confirm this week that this year's Open will be at Hillbrook, near Queenstown, a new course owned by jewellery magnate Michael Hill.