Scott Hellier shoots scintillating 60

Southlands Scott Hellier has cashed in on calm conditions at the New Zealand Amateur Championship to shoot a scintillating course record of 12-under (60) at the Russley Golf Club this morning .

Carding 12 birdies and six pars, Hellier just missed out on the opportunity of making the magical score of 59 as club members flocked to the 18th green.

This score has launched him from outside the all-important top 32 who progress to the match-play stages, into first place alone to claim the medal for top qualifier.

This is believed to be the lowest score in the tournaments long 124-year history.

"Its a pretty good feeling, everything was happening and nothing was going wrong so its an unreal feeling," said a very happy Hellier.

"My putting was just crazy, I was holing everything so it was pretty surreal. When I was four-under through five and seven under-through nine, I thought something good was obviously happening."

With an opening round of 76, he has beaten that by a mammoth 16-strokes while also surpassing his personal best in the process.

"It beats my previous best of 61 at Gore, so its way better that that, especially at this course."

Hellier is coming off a victory at the Otago match-play championships last weekend which clearly had a great impact on his current form. He will now look to use that match-play experience when he faces his playing partner today, Canterburys Tom Parker in the opening round of match-play tomorrow. Parker finished his day with consecutive birdies to sneak inside the cutline.

Not only did Russley enjoy a new course record this morning, they also got the chance to witness one of their own in Juliana Hung rise to the top of the womens leaderboard in style.

The 15-year-old constructed a patient round of three-under (69) to end the day as the deserving top qualifier by closing the day - birdie, par, birdie to hammer it home by five shots over the impressive 14-year-old Silvia Brunotti and the experienced Chantelle Cassidy.

The Cantabrian made five birdies and two bogies to elevate up the leaderboard and she will now play Erica Cui in the first round of sudden death.

In the opening blockbuster battle, Amelia Garvey will play Brittney Dryland to start things off which means one of our favourites is sure to be going home early.

In the mens division, we have been gifted with an exciting top 32 this year and with that comes some great match-ups in the first round with Ryan Chisnall taking on Asia-Pacific teammate James Anstiss which is sure to create a spectacle.

For the locals, there are two big Canterbury matches with Sam Purdon playing Hayato Miya and Scott Manyweathers facing Dominic Brettkelly.

Tee times are to commence at the same time of 7:15am with two rounds of match-play scheduled.

ROUND ONE WOMENS MATCH-PLAY DRAW & SCORING

ROUND ONE MENS MATCH-PLAY DRAW & SCORING

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