Nick Gillespie. Photo / Hawkes Bay Today
Danny Lee and Nick Gillespie fought out the final of the New Zealand Amateur championship at Hamilton in April. Lee won that easily but now the two of them are embroiled in a contest for another prestigious honour - that of leading amateur at the New Zealand Open.
They were the only two players out of the 75 who made the cut who won't be paid tonight and Lee, on even par, took a one-shot advantage into round three.
But it was the 19-year-old Gillespie who emerged as the Bledisloe Cup front-runner after 54 holes following an even par round of 72, while Lee faded to a 75.
Gillespie, who had his father, the former test cricketer Stu Gillespie carrying his bag for the first time in a tournament, played an impressive ball-striking round but mixed three bogeys with the same number of birdies. He wowed the crowd with his second to the 17th when he hit driver off the fairway uphill to the 506m par five and had it roll up to within 5m of the hole. He narrowly missed that eagle putt, along with birdie opportunities inside the same distance on the 15th, 16th and 18th.
"It was a bit frustrating," he said. "The longest putt I got was about four foot, and that was for par. But this is my first New Zealand Open so I'm just really happy to be here for the weekend."
He very nearly didn't make it past Friday. He opened with 78 on Thursday but roared back in round two with a 67 to make the cut right on the number. Needing a par on the 18th to make the final two rounds, he hit his second shot into the huge bunker short of the green. Even though Gillespie is a tall, slim young man, he could barely see the pin as he played from the sand.
"I'd hit about 10 practice shots from that bunker on Tuesday and none came out. So I wasn't brimming with confidence. But I just slashed at it and it rolled up there to within a couple of inches."
Lee, the best amateur in the country, also rued a day of lost opportunities on the greens.
"I was hitting it really well today but I couldn't hole anything. It's really nice out there, but it's so slopey on those greens. I couldn't work it out."
