Matthew McLean (Harewood) finished strongly to win the Queenstown Open tournament, which was played over 72 holes on the Kelvin Heights course in Queenstown during the weekend.
With scores of 70, 71, 67 and 71, McLean finished nine-under-par overall for the four rounds with a total of 279.
He finished one shot ahead of Liam Balneaves (Greenacres), Fraser McLachlan (Millbrook) and Mathew Tautari (Invercargill) who tied for second on 280.
Laura Hoskin continued to stake her claim as No1 in this year’s women’s team, following her win at Chisholm Park a week ago with some good scoring during the weekend.
Masters (over-40) honours went to Simon Boland (Winton) with rounds of 75 and 74. Boland seems to have a mortgage on this event, winning by five shots from Jilian Cahill (Arrowtown) this year.
Hills professional Craig Palmer set the early pace in the men’s event with 67, while Tautari, McLachlan and Chisholm Links winner Brandon Hodgson (Otago) were tied one shot off the pace on 68.
Balneaves was one shot back on 69, while the eventual winner McLean started with a round of 70.
Tautari took the overnight lead with 67 on Saturday afternoon for a 135 tally, while McLachlan sat in second place on 135.
McLean was tied for third with Frankton professional Micah Dickinson on 141, while Balneaves was one shot further back in fifth place.
But with a sub-par 67, McLean took charge yesterday morning, and clinched the title with his fourth sub-par round of 71 in the final round.
There are two more weekends of trial golf for the Otago amateur hopefuls before the team will be named to play Southland at Taieri Lakes at the end of this month.
