The opening day of matchplay at the 2026 NSW Amateur Championship delivered thrilling finishes, with seven matches requiring extra holes to determine winners at Oatlands Golf Club.<\/p>\n
The tournament\u2019s unique format saw men complete two rounds of matchplay while women contested their first round, setting the stage for tomorrow\u2019s quarter-finals before both fields advance to semi-final action in the afternoon.<\/p>\n
The day\u2019s most dramatic moment came on the 21st hole, where top seed Jye Halls (New South Wales) suffered a stunning upset to Adam Baillie (The Vines) in the round of 16. The women\u2019s draw saw its own upset, with top seed Amelia Whinney falling to Sahara Hillman-Varma 2&1. Camilla Kim (The Australian) also needed extra holes, outlasting Ruby Cotton (Mt Lawley) on the 21st hole in another marathon encounter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never felt more zesty,\u201d Kim said, still buzzing from her victory. <\/p>\n
\u201cOn 17, I had this 25-footer, and Ruby had a much shorter birdie putt. I just hit my putt, and it was going in, and I fist pumped \u2013 never fist bumped in my life \u2013 and it just went in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several players stamped their authority on the championship with convincing victories. Lara Thomsen (The Australian) defeated Zoe Arcus (The Australian) 7&6 in one of the day\u2019s most commanding performances.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went out there and played really solid,\u201d Thomsen said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t really do much wrong, so I was happy to get the win. I struggled a little bit on the back nine yesterday, but I managed to get into a playoff with a good birdie on the last hole. I came out here with a fresh mind, and yeah, I played really solid.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the men\u2019s round of 32, Taylor Barr (Sanctuary Cove) dispatched Joseph Serhan (St. Michaels) 6&5, while Callum Sharp (Avondale) defeated Harry Atkinson (Pymble) 5&3. <\/p>\n
Greg Holmes (Royal Birkdale) impressed with a 4&3 victory over Nihal Gaundar (Stonecutters Ridge) in the round of 16, and Ti Fox (Concord) advanced to the quarter-finals with a 3&2 victory over Sharp, though he admitted to a sluggish start to his day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely wanted to go back to sleep, I didn\u2019t feel the greatest,\u201d Fox said. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut I finished strong with four birdies in the last five holes. Then in the second match against Cal Sharp, who\u2019s a good bloke, I got up 2 and 3 early and held that all day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fox, who lost in last year\u2019s semi-finals, has his sights set higher this time. <\/p>\n
\u201cI want to get to the finals. I lost in the semis to Deco last year, so it\u2019d be good to get to the finals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ella Scaysbrook kept local hopes alive with a 3&1 victory over teammate Rachel Lee, though she downplayed championship talk.<\/p>\n
\u201cMe and Rachel are really good friends and teammates, so it was a friendly match,\u201d Scaysbrook said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not really thinking about winning at the moment, just going match by match. But obviously it\u2019d be really nice to get the home state championship.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scaysbrook credited recent adjustments with her coach for her solid form, noting she\u2019s in the middle of a demanding six-week stretch of competition. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m kind of just trying to pace myself a little bit,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cEverything at the moment\u2019s really good. Probably putting, I would say, I\u2019m putting decent at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Related Links:
2026 NSW Amateur Matchplay Leaderboard<\/a>
Halls, Whinney Claim Stroke Play Honours at NSW Amateur<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The opening day of matchplay at the 2026 NSW Amateur Championship delivered thrilling finishes, with seven matches requiring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-445498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}