Young Southland golfer Vaughan McCall is the best of the New Zealanders after the opening round of the Australian amateur men's strokeplay in Melbourne yesterday.
Playing late in the afternoon round, McCall fired a superb four-under par 68 to be in a share of second place at Woodlands Golf Club.
The recent South Island amateur champion shares second place with John Yim of New South Wales, two shots behind Queensland's Cameron Smith.
McCall showed real patience on a testing day in his first major international test for the former national under-19 champion from Gore.
New Zealand representative Mathew Perry from the Hamilton Golf Club shot a two-under 70 to be in a share of eighth place while Ben Campbell (Masterton), shot a one-under 71 on the same course to be in a share of 12th place.
It proved a testing opening day on Melbourne's sandbelt courses, with only 18 of 257 golfers from Europe, Asia, USA, New Zealand and Australia under-par on the Woodlands and Victoria courses today.
Back in a share of 51st place were a quartet of New Zealanders on two-over 74 including Sam An (Titirangi), Ryan Fox (Royal Auckland), Brad Kendall (Mt Maunganui) and Keelan Kilpatrick (Russley), all at Woodlands and all with work to do to make the top 32 players after four rounds to qualify for the matchplay phase.
Leading scores, round 1, par 72:
66 Cameron Smith (QLD)
68 John Yim (NSW), Vaughan McCall (NZL, Gore)
69 Tim Hart (QLD), Tim Frazer (NSW), Michael Williams (NSW), Ryan Woodward (VIC)
70 Matt Dowling (VIC), Nathan Holman (VIC), Andy Roberts (VIC), Mathew Perry (NZL, Hamilton)
71 William Hume (VIC), Brad Moules (SA), Ben Campbell (NZL, Masterton), Kevin Marques (QLD), Ben Rogers (VIC), Sean Underwood (NSW)
Other New Zealanders:
74 Sam An (Titirangi), Ryan Fox (Royal Auckland), Brad Kendall (Mt Maunganui), Keelan Kilpatrick (Russley)
76 Fraser Wilkin (Royal Auckland)
77 Cameron Jones (North Shore), Tom Brockelsby (Royal Wellington)
78 Owen Burgess (Russley)
79 Daniel Pearce (Hastings)
81 Shaun Jones (Russley), James Betts (Paraparaumu Beach)
82 Fraser Maclachlan (Royal Wellington), Richard Squire (Miramar), Andrew Stewart (Omokoroa)
85 Kieran Goodall (Maraenui), Mark Speedy (Royal Wellington)
