Australian Misun Cho proved just as adept at matchplay as strokeplay when she reached the final of the New Zealand women's amateur championship at Shirley, Christchurch, yesterday.
The 18-year-old from the Huntingdale club in Melbourne fired seven birdies and just one bogey to be six-under when beating home-course player Eunice
Jin in the semifinals.
The win booked her place in today's 36-hole final against another Australia-based Korean, Amy Yang, from Queensland's Gold Coast.
Yang dashed the hopes of a transtasman final when she nailed a 1m birdie putt at the last to beat North Harbour's Mi Kyung Kim 1 up.
Kim, who received her New Zealand citizenship in the last month, has since been added to the national team to contest the Australian strokeplay championship next year.
Kim was 2 down after three, but square after seven. The pair were never separated by more than one hole from that point.
Yang had a two-putt birdie to go 1 up at 14, but her second bogey at 15 had her back to square.
They stayed that way to the last where Yang, 30m away after her drive, hit a lob wedge to one metre and, despite nerves after missing two short putts earlier, drilled the birdie putt.
In the quarter-finals, Cho holed a 3m birdie putt on the 18th green to beat a gallant Lisa Wright, 1 up.
Jin was a little too strong and steady for Southland's Robyn Boniface, the titleholder 30 years ago.
- NZPA
