Golf: Wanganui chance for treble

Rotorua golfer Penny Newbrook will have the chance to complete a notable treble when she competes in the national women's championship at Wanganui next week.

Newbrook won the strokeplay championship at Ashburton in March and was a member of the Bay of Plenty-Thames Valley team who won the interprovincial teams title at Manawatu in October.

A win for the 21-year-old at Wanganui would match the feat of another Bay of Plenty player, Brenda Ormsby, who completed the treble in 1996.

Newbrook was also a member of the New Zealand team, who finished ninth in the world amateur championships in Puerto Rico. One of her main rivals will be her team-mate from that event, Sarah Nicholson from the Hutt.

The matchplay championship was won last year by English player Shelly McKevitt, who beat Australian Nikki Garrett in the final at Mt Maunganui. The field was strengthened by several players from the Commonwealth tournament at Remuera the previous week.

The 20-year-old Garrett, from the Tuggerah Lakes Club in New South Wales, is back again after a season in which she was the player of the tournament at the Australian interprovincial championships.

Three talented Queenslanders, Heather Warren, Michelle Coetzee and Karen Quinn, are also in the field.

The last New Zealander to win the title was Wendy Hawkes in 2001. She has since turned professional.

The championships begin with foursomes on Monday. There will be 36-hole qualifying on Tuesday with the top 32 qualifying for the championship matchplay.

Twelve secondary schools will take part in the golfing section of the New Zealand College Games in Hamilton from this weekend. They will play at the Lochiel, Narrows and St Andrews courses.

Schools taking part are Bethlehem College, Spotswood College, Rotorua Boys High, Mt Maunganui College, Lytton High, Inglewood High, Saint Kentigern College, St Peters College, Wellington College, Tauranga Boys College, Morrinsville College and Hamilton Boys High.

Top New Zealand women's professional Lynnette Brooky, taking a break from the European tour, has won the Sapphire Coast Classic on the Australian professional circuit.

Brooky had to endure a four-hole playoff before beating Rebecca Coakley at the Sapphire Coast Classic.

Among other Kiwis competing on the circuit are South Canterbury player Catherine Knight and Pam Sowden from North Harbour.

Several New Zealand professionals and amateurs will attempt to qualify for the Australasian men's tour when qualifying begins at the Amstel Golf Club near Melbourne on Tuesday.

The first stage consists of three rounds before final qualifying over four rounds at the Peninsula Country Golf Club in the same area the following week.