APGC Junior Boys’ Champion Crowe in Cruise Mode

Melbourne, Australia: Harrison Crowe, the reigning APGC Junior Boys’ champion, and Kirsten Rudgeley finished 2020 on a high with victories in the Victorian Amateur Championship.

Crowe ran out a 6&5 winner against Joshua Greer in the 36-hole final of the men’s championship at the Metropolitan Golf Club, while Rudgeley beat Malaysian-born Jeneath Wong 3&2 in the final of the women’s event.

Thanks to his success, 19-year-old Crowe jumped 88 positions to 294th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR). Greer climbed 64 places to 697th.

“It’s a great finish to the year. It (2020) has been pretty ordinary but it’s something to build on in the future,’’ said Crowe, winner of the Boys’ individual title at last year’s Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation Junior Championship Mitsubishi Corporation Cup at Japan’s Hakone Country Club.

Now looking ahead to next month’s Master of the Amateurs and the Australian Amateur, Crowe said he believes his game is improving. He said: “I can feel it. Even before this week, I set the bar pretty high. I had to dig deep in the stroke play. I was outside top 10 and then I had a nice round Saturday, found something and finished third, and kept it rolling into the match play.”

For her part, Rudgeley neatly book-ended her 2020 season by winning the Port Phillip Open Amateur and Victorian Amateur Championships. It was a fitting end to a year that saw her triumph in the Western Australia Amateur Championship in March.

Rudgeley entered the Victorian Amateur as top seed after winning the Port Phillip Open Amateur. The Perth resident won by one shot from Wong. She once more got the better of Wong in the match play final.

Rudgeley, runner-up to Wong in this year’s Riversdale Cup, jumped 34 places to 328th on the WAGR. Wong, winner of the past three club championships at Metropolitan, is nine places better off in 319th.

Rudgeley plays off a plus-six handicap at Mt Lawley, home club of Hannah Green, with whom she is close friends. She was born in England but emigrated to Australia with her parents when she was three.

She is the first player since Stephanie Bunque in 2017 to win the Port Phillip and the Victorian Amateur in the same year. Winner of the past three Western Australia Amateurs, Rudgeley said: “It’s nice to be able to do it somewhere else besides WA.”

In Queensland, Park Hye-jun (pictured right) earned her third 2020 victory when she ran out a four-shot winner of the Greg Norman Junior Masters. Park remains Korea’s fifth best player by solidifying her 103rd ranking.

Park, the recent Katherine Kirk Classic champion who has collected six national ranking titles in the past two years, began the final round three back from Keperra Bowl women’s champion Justice Bosio. But the 17-year-old clawed back for victory by four. Five birdies in her closing 11 holes secured the win.

Manato Nakatani (pictured with Park) won the Boys’ title in the event that was reduced to 36 holes at Palmer Gold Coast after torrential downpour caused havoc throughout the week. Nakatani dazzled the boys’ field with the best opening round of 69. The 16-year-old from Surfers Paradise Golf Club followed up with a three-under-par 68 to seal the championship by one. The win earns him an exemption into the Isuzu Queensland Open to be held in March next year.

The distinction for the biggest ranking improvement of the week among men went to New Zealand’s Zachary May who soared 1,284 spots to a career-best 4,982nd in the WAGR after victory in the New Zealand Under-19 Championship. May’s 203 total after scoring 65, 72 and 66 gave him an 11-shot victory.

With her triumph in the Girls’ section, New Zealander Carmen Lim broke into the top 300 with a 15-ranking move to 287th. Lim cruised to an eight-shot victory with scores of 73, 67 and 68 for a 208 tally.