Golf: Brownlee hangs on for win

New Zealand men's under-19 championship winner Simon Brownlee follows the path of his tee shot into the wind on the 10th hole during yesterday's final round at Balmacewen. Photo by Gerard O'Brien.

Yesterday, he won the New Zealand men's under-19 championship in tough conditions at Balmacewen on his second visit to the city.

His first visit was earlier in the year when he shot an 8-under 63 in the first round of the South Island men's championship at St Clair to set a course record.

However, yesterday, scores soared and Brownlee, who started with a 68 and 69, finished 5 over the card with a 76 in the blustery winds.

"I did just enough to stay in front," he said commenting on his winning margin of two ahead of Owen Burgess (Russley).

In the under-17 section, Jordan Bakermans (Christchurch) and Jay Maaka (Westown) tied on 7-over 220, with Bakermans winning the playoff with a par 4 on the 18th in the sleet and snow.

Brayden Mazey (Hutt) won the under-15 title, while under-13 honours went to Kalyn Ponga (Rangatiki), after none of the youngsters made the cut for the final round.

Along with Brownlee's overall win, he was awarded the inaugural Aaron Mahoney Scholarship which has been given by Aaron's parents after his tragic death.

This entitles Brownlee to airfares to Auckland and a half-day coaching clinic with short-game guru Peter Fowler.

Brownlee has left school and is a full-time golfer, with his long-term goal being a professional career.

He turned square with the card yesterday and was quite happy as he had played the back nine well all week.

But he made a double bogey 6 at the 10th and bogeyed the 12th, 14th, 16th and 18th with one solitary birdie 4 on Tipperary (No 13).

Scores soared in the blustery conditions except for William Brown (Waikohu), who started the event with an 82 but posted the only sub-par round of 70 yesterday.

After the prospect of not qualifying, Brown romped up the leader board finishing in a tie for ninth.

Otago's golfers failed to fire yesterday, Duncan Croudis (Otago) scoring 79 for seventh place and Chase Thomas (Ardleigh) an 83 for 19th place while Anthony McCullough (Chisholm Park) posted an impressive 73 to tie with Thomas.

Cecilia Cho made no race of it in the under-19 women's final at Chisholm Park yesterday, winning by 13 shots.

Cho (15) was eight shots clear at the start of her round yesterday, and was never in any trouble of losing her lead on the course which was buffeted by some strong winds.

She finished with a three-round score of 219.

The Pakuranga golfer carded her worst score of the week yesterday with a 75 but it was still the best score for any player on the day by five shots.

Cho started off well and scored a birdie on the seventh hole, repeating her feat of Thursday.

But she had a disastrous triple bogey on the ninth.

She recovered though and finished in great style, picking up a birdie on the 18th.

Holes 11 through to 15 were extremely tough in the wind on the course yesterday and when heavy showers arrived it was not the most friendly of conditions.

To illustrate Cho's ability, she was 25 shots clear of the fourth-placed golfer.

Cho will lead New Zealand in the world amateur teams championships the Espirito Santo Trophy in Argentina next month.

Well behind Cho in second place was Chantelle Cassidy (Tokoroa) who carded an 80 yesterday.

In third place, another five shots back, was Mun Chin Keh (Pakuranga).

She struggled in the blustery conditions yesterday to finish with an 85.

Keh had a rough start, bogeying the first three holes and never recovered.