A gruelling 36-hole day of championship golf in sweltering Sydney heat has produced four deserving finalists at the NSW Amateur Matchplay Championship at Oatlands Golf Club.<\/p>\n
The day\u2019s closest contest came in the women\u2019s draw, where 13-year-old Sophie Tong from The Australian Golf Club held her nerve to defeat Concord\u2019s Alicia Luo 1up in a match that went the distance. The young talent will face clubmate Lara Thomsen in an all-Australian GC final after Thomsen also prevailed 1up against Camilla Kim in another nail-biting semifinal.<\/p>\n
In the men\u2019s draw, The Vines\u2019 Adam Baillie secured his spot in the final with a 2&1 victory over Concord\u2019s Ti Fox, while The Vintage Golf Club\u2019s Joshua Fuller edged past Keperra\u2019s Ben Dowling 2up to set up tomorrow\u2019s championship match.<\/p>\n
The quarterfinals earlier in the day set the stage for the drama to follow. Tong had posted a commanding 3&1 victory over Concord\u2019s Sahara Hillman-Varma, while Thomsen powered past Pacific\u2019s Allegra De Guzman 4&2 to advance. Baillie opened his account with a 4&3 triumph over Royal Birkdale\u2019s Greg Holmes, while Fuller posted a convincing 5&3 win over The Grange\u2019s Blair Christie in the morning session.<\/p>\n
Adam Baillie arrives in the final with confidence built on consistent ball-striking throughout the week.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been driving it really well and just being in play has helped me enormously,\u201d Baillie said after his semifinal victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been playing pretty good. I think it was always coming, but I wasn\u2019t necessarily expecting it yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Vines representative, who has tasted success on the professional circuit but is yet to claim a major amateur title, is treating the final as another challenge to embrace.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll go out there and do the same thing I\u2019ve been doing, just hitting every shot as it comes,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf I can get across the line, I\u2019ll feel good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joshua Fuller comes into the final off the back of a confidence-boosting tied-third finish at the Avondale Amateur last week, though he admits the week started shakily.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was four or five over early on the front nine in the first round, and then grinded it out,\u201d Fuller revealed. <\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t hit many fairways yesterday but just scrambled for a few wins, which was nice, and today I played a lot better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Vintage golfer has found patience to be his greatest asset in the testing Oatlands conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe wind\u2019s been up a little bit, so trusting the wind and just staying patient around the greens. They\u2019re very slopey and slippery,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For Fuller, victory would represent his first win in several years and his biggest amateur triumph to date.<\/p>\n
In the women\u2019s final, Sophie Tong has defied expectations simply by reaching the championship match at just 13 years of age.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really didn\u2019t expect it,\u201d she admitted. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really lucky. Everyone played really well in the competition, and it was really hot today; it\u2019s hard playing 36 holes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Supported by her parents throughout the week, Tong has impressed with her course management and maturity beyond her years.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes when I have some longer clubs, I\u2019m just not going for the greens when there\u2019s bunkers,\u201d she explained. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got some notes in my yardage book that I just usually follow. Just take it hole by hole.\u201d<\/p>\n
Facing Tong in tomorrow\u2019s final will be fellow Australian GC member Lara Thomsen, fresh out of school and competing in her first NSW Amateur final.<\/p>\n
\u201cBest I\u2019ve ever done was getting into the semis at Belmont, and this year I\u2019m in my first ever final, which I\u2019m really excited for,\u201d Thomsen said after her marathon semifinal against Kim that finished on the 18th hole.<\/p>\n
Thomsen, who will have her coach on the bag tomorrow, has found her iron play to be the key to her success this week, despite some struggles off the tee in today\u2019s semifinal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe driver was struggling today. I was just trying to keep it in play on some of my tee shots, but I got the job done,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
For the promising young player, a victory would validate months of dedicated practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been fresh out of school, been practising really hard, and it would be really good to see all the work pay off,\u201d Thomsen said.<\/p>\n
Sunday\u2019s Finals:<\/p>\n
Women: Sophie Tong (The Australian GC) v Lara Thomsen (The Australian GC)<\/p>\n
Men: Adam Baillie (The Vines GC) v Joshua Fuller (The Vintage GC)<\/p>\n
Related Links:
2026 NSW Amateur Matchplay Results<\/a>
Opening Day of Matchplay Delivers Drama at NSW Amateur<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A gruelling 36-hole day of championship golf in sweltering Sydney heat has produced four deserving finalists at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-450523","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\/450523","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=450523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}