Golf: Boon swings back to form

North Harbour golfer Anita Boon is determined to exorcise her matchplay demons when she starts the New Zealand women's amateur championships in Nelson today.

Boon lost last year's matchplay final in New Plymouth to Otago's Wendy Hawkes after leading by seven holes with nine to play.

The 29-year-old agreed she had needed time to recover from that loss.

"It was a tough final last year. It was pretty hard to get over it."

Boon said her scoring had also suffered after rebuilding her swing following the final. That had disrupted her game, but her numbers had started to improve in the past few months.

"It's just now that my form is starting to come back. I've had a general swing overhaul, it's tightened up all round.

"My accuracy is better, especially off the tee, where it counts.

"My short game has improved as well, and I've been working hard on my putting."

Boon, who regularly drives the ball 220m to 230m, showed the benefits of her changes at last month's inter-provincials at New Plymouth.

She led North Harbour to their second title, sinking a 2.5m putt on the final hole to win the championship.

"That was a good effort in the inter-provincials. Sinking that putt helped my confidence."

Bay of Plenty's Tina Howard and Motueka's Debbie Smith are the top-ranked New Zealanders in the championships.

An eight-player Australian contingent is headed by their national junior champion, Sarah-Jane Kenyon.

New Zealand also have a number of promising juniors entered.

Titleist Academy members Penny Newbrook, 19, Enu Chung, 14, and Kyla Welsh, 18, represent a serious threat to the established players.

Chung is fourth on the national rankings and Welsh and Newbrook are seventh and ninth respectively.

Welsh was third at the national trials at the start of the year.

Half the 60-strong field are teenagers. The youngest are 12-year-old Lisa Wright from Nelson and 13-year-old In-Hong Lim, of (Wellington, who plays off a four handicap.

Twenty-four players are on two handicap or lower.

The championship begins with the national foursomes, with qualifying from tomorrow and a 36-hole final on Sunday.

- NZPA