Exciting day as top seeds fall at NZ Amateur Championship

Its been an exciting day at the New Zealand Amateur Championship with the top 32 creating some early drama at the Wairakei Golf & Sanctuary.

The leading qualifier hoodoo was in full force as Jimmy Zheng was defeated on the 19th hole by a courageous Junior Tatana this morning, before Kit Bittle came from behind to take down his interprovincial teammate Mark Hutson 3&2 this afternoon.

But for Aucklands Siyi Keh, it was a day to remember after downing two of the tournaments biggest scalps by defeating New Zealand Stroke Play champion and second seed Juliana Hung 1up in the morning before turning it on in the afternoon to defeat the 2016 champion Rose Zheng by an impressive 6&5 margin.

She has good company in the final 16 with defending champion Silvia Brunotti looking comfortable once again by defeating Madeline May and Anna An.

But all of the Kiwis will be fearful Koreas Kum Kang Park who is looking flawless since finishing as the lead qualifier yesterday to defeat Amy Im 5&4 and Hannah Park 1up.

They will be joined by Aucklands Carmen Lim and Vivian Lu who enjoyed a comfortable day alongside Otagos Laura Hoskin who is only getting better as the week progresses.

In earlier heroics, it was Junior Tatana who made the biggest statement of the day to defeat lead qualifier Jimmy Zheng in the mens field. After being stuck behind a car crash on the way to the course, Tatana was lucky make his tee time, before finding his own trouble to drop three holes swiftly.

However with an impressive three late birdies, the 41-year-old fought back to win on the 10th hole which he has played a whopping six times in three days after a long playoff last night. The script didnt change much in the afternoon against 2013 Champion Kadin Neho who took an early lead before having to beat Tatana on the final hole after Tatana made a string of late birdies once again.

Neho has been away from the game for a long time, but to see him back and doing more than just competing is exciting and it seems this championship brings the best out of the Northlander.

After a stress-free morning win, defending champion Daniel Hillier was pushed right to the limit this afternoon to win on the final hole against a determined Scott Manyweathers to continue his campaign in the aim of securing his third New Zealand Amateur title.

With Kerry Mountcastle also winning in convincing fashion, the two Eisenhower representatives will play out a mouth-watering quarterfinal tomorrow morning with the winner to face either Kit Bittle or former NZ Under 19 Champion Mako Thompson in the Semi Finals.

Quarter final match play draw here

- This story has been automatically published using a media release from Golf NZ