The smile on Nelson teenager Lisa Wright said it all after she reached the quarter-finals of the New Zealand women's amateur championship at the Christchurch Golf Club yesterday.
After eliminating Aucklander Dasom Lee in the first round of matchplay, Wright, 15, showed deft touches in the second round to beat
Australian representative Bree Turnbull 2 and 1 at the 17th hole.
Named recently in the New Zealand team for the Australian junior championship in January, Wright justified her selection by finishing three-under against Turnbull.
Wright was 2 up after 11 holes, square after 13, 1 up after a birdie at 14 and matched Turnbull's superb approach to birdie the 15th.
A 5.5m par putt at 17 brought a smile of success from Wright, who will play top qualifier Misun Cho, of Australia, in the quarter-finals today.
Cho survived a first-round fright against Natasha Krishna, of Auckland, before comfortably disposing of 2004 beaten semifinalist Haeji Kang, of Surfers Paradise, 5 and 3.
Canterbury's Eunice Jin, 15, downed national representative Jackie Shin at the 16th then Australian Heather Warren in the second round.
Jin's opponent in today's last eight will be Robyn Boniface, who eliminated Australian Jody Fleming in the first round then fellow Southlander Robyn Pullar at the 18th in the second round.
Defending champion Sarah Nicholson, of the Hutt club in Wellington, came from 1 down at the turn to beat third qualifier, Emma Bennett, of Victoria, at the last.
The other quarter-finalists are Amy Yang, Sharon Ahn and Mi Kyung Kim.
- NZPA
