Golf: Campbell into final, Ko and Cho bow out

Ben Campbell. Photo / Getty Images

New Zealand golfer Ben Campbell has secured a place in today's final of the Australian amateur championships after a monumental battle with compatriot Ryan Fox in Melbourne yesterday.

Last year's runner up had to endure three extra holes before claiming his place in the 36-hole final where he will meet Australian Matthew Stieger at Victoria Golf Club.

However, the glamour New Zealand pair of world No 2-ranked amateur Cecilia Cho and No 3 Lydia Ko were both bundled out of the women's draw yesterday.

Ko was beaten in the quarterfinals by Australian representative and 2009 Riversdale Cup champion Ashlee Dewhurst 2 and 1 in a high-quality affair.

The Tasmanian was five-under par while Ko was three-under when the match ended at the 17th hole.

Cho, the runner-up last year, cruised through her quarterfinal with a 6 and 4 drubbing of Australian representative Ebony Heard but in-form Western Australian Minjee Lee, a 5 and 4 winner in the morning, was even more impressive in beating Cho 6 and 5 in the semifinals.

Lee was under-par in both matches and made no mistakes against the New Zealander, who paid the penalty for some uncharacteristic errors.

Campbell, the world's 14th-ranked amateur, displayed all his experience and attitude to sneak home in the morning quarterfinal 1 up over South Australia's Brad Moules.

He made a hot start to the semifinal against Fox, two-up after nine holes and five-under par.

Campbell moved to three-up with four holes to play before Fox got one back with a birdie on the 15th, another with a par on the 17th and then a brilliant tap-in eagle on the par-5 18th to send the match into extra holes.

Campbell thought he had won the contest when his 4m birdie on the first extra hole slid in and then out of the cup, with his celebratory fist-pump proving premature.

They halved the second playoff hole and Campbell got the job done when he two-putted from 20m while Fox failed to get up and down out of the bunker.

Earlier, Fox was in outstanding form to dispose of Englishman Dave Coupland, runner-up in the strokeplay earlier in the tournament, 2 and 1.

Australian Bryden Macpherson, the New Zealand strokeplay champion three years ago, ended the hopes of Waikato's Mat Perry 4 and 3 in the quarterfinal but the Victorian, who has a New Zealand mother, lost three of his last four holes for Stieger to triumph 2 and 1 in the semifinals.

Campbell has the chance to emulate the feat of his namesake Michael Campbell, who is the only New Zealander to have won the Australian amateur title in more than 100 years. The only other New Zealander to claim success at the tournament was Auckland's C E S Gillies in 1899.

- NZPA