Golf: Queens of the greens fight for supremacy

Cecilia Cho defends her national amateur title this week. Photo / Christine Cornege

Buoyed by their strong performance at last week's Queen Sirikit Cup, New Zealand leading women's golfers now face each other at the national amateur championships in Hawkes Bay.

Zoe Brake, of Whakatane, and Pakuranga's Cecilia Cho will have the opportunity to defend their titles in the New Zealand strokeplay and amateur championships, respectively.

All eyes will be on Australian Matt Jager in the men's competition as he returns to defend the New Zealand amateur title he won last year.

A host of top New Zealanders are keen to ensure that does not happen in the week-long championships.

The 72-hole strokeplay is today, with the women at Napier Golf Club and men at Hastings Golf Club.

The women play one round each today and tomorrow with two rounds on Friday to decide the honours before the top 32 move on to the matchplay.

The men's strokeplay begins today with a cut for the top 72 players plus ties after two rounds with the final round on Saturday. The top 32 players will move on to the matchplay, joined by the women at the Bridge Pa course.

In the women's competition, it is hard to see past the international trio of Brake, Cho and North Harbour's Lydia Ko, who combined to finish second at last week's Queen Sirikit Asia Pacific teams championship.

Brake is the South Island champion and defending New Zealand strokeplay titleholder, Cho won the Australian strokeplay and was runner-up in the Australian amateur recently while Ko won the North Island amateur and was runner-up to Cho in last year's final.

Others with solid credentials include South Island runner-up Caroline Bon, of Northland, Nelson's Lisa Wright, Hamilton's Emily Perry and juniors Liv Cheng, of Auckland, and Erin Hawe, of Waikato.

Among those bidding to thwart Jager is Masterton's Ben Campbell, who was beaten by Jager in the final of the Australian amateur.

Tauranga's Andrew Stewart and Nick Gillespie, of Wellington, won the South Island and North Island titles respectively recently while Aucklander Ryan Fox impressed in the strokeplay at the Australian amateur.

Tauranga's James Hamilton was a semifinalist last year and Auckland's Ben Wallace has a fine matchplay record. Others to watch include Auckland's Gary-John Hill, Hamilton's Mathew Perry and Thomas Spearman-Burn, of Wellington.

- NZPA