KEY POINTS:
Waikato golfer James Gill struck his best form to finish fifth in the prestigious Players Amateur in the United States today.
Gill finished on a 15-under par total of 273 at the private Belfair West Course at Bluffton, South Carolina.
Previous winners of the tournament include Ben Curtis, Camilo Villegas and Jonathan Moore.
The New Zealand amateur strokeplay champion was the joint leader after his opening round six-under 66 and completed all four rounds in red figures, finishing nine shots behind winner Rickie Fowler.
"I'm pretty pleased to shoot 15-under," Gill said.
"In other years that would have probably won on the West course.
"Rickie broke the tournament record by seven shots, so he was really hot," Gill said.
"This is no easy track...
"I hit it very consistently and the short putts started to drop.
"I did not have a bogey in the last two rounds which was pleasing."
Gill has a week off before two more key tournaments, the Porter Cup and Western Amateur ahead of qualifying for the US Amateur.
The Players Amateur is rated one of the handful of leading amateur tournaments in the US, best known to New Zealanders as the event where Brad Iles suffered his serious injury in 2004.
Meanwhile, fellow New Zealand amateur Danny Lee has been edged out in the second round of the US Public Links Championship in Illinois.
He qualified in fifth place after the 36-hole strokeplay qualifying with a two-under par 142 and won through his first round matchplay 1-up over American Troy Johnson.
Lee, from Rotorua, was beaten by another American Christian Raynor in the second round 2 and 1 after the pair were all square after 15 holes at the Cantigny Golf Club in Wheaton.
Fellow New Zealander Sam Shin missed out on the matchplay phase, finishing in a share of 87th place in qualifying.
Scores (all US unless stated):
264 Rickie Fowler 68 63 64 69
266 Michael Thompson 68 64 65 69
268 Kyle Stanley 71 64 70 63
271 Rohan Blizard (Australia) 66 71 65 69
273 JAMES GILL (NZ) 66 70 69 68
- NZPA
