Golf: Munn named in Eisenhower team

ON FIRE: Joshua Munn has been in impressive form and, like his teammates, has experience on the international stage. PHOTO/FILE

Former Manawatu-Wanganui golfer Joshua Munn has been named in the New Zealand team to contest the 29th Eisenhower World Teams Championship in Japan.

Munn has been a standout in recent times. The 23-year-old from the Manawatu Golf Club secured what he called "the biggest win of my career" when he claimed the NZ Amateur.

He has been New Zealand's most successful player over the past two years. Last year he won the Lake Macquarie Amateur for his first international title.

He is the only amateur to have won twice on the Charles Tour (Harewood Open 2012 and Muriwai Open 2011) and he played a leading role in the wins of Manawatu-Wanganui at the 2012 SBS Invitational and 2013 Toro Interprovincial.

The Eisenhower team is Joshua Munn (Manawatu), Tae Koh (Manukau) and Vaughan McCall (Gore).

The Eisenhower will be staged at the Oshitate Course and Iriyama Course of the Karurizawa Golf Club from September 11-14.

The Kiwis will look to emulate Michael Campbell, Phil Tataurangi, Grant Moorhead and Stephen Scahill who won the trophy in Canada in 1992.

All three players have good experience on the international stage and form ahead of the event.

Auckland golfer Koh will make his debut for New Zealand. He made a name for himself in January when becoming only the third Kiwi golfer to win the Australian Amateur Championship.

The 19-year-old from the Manukau Golf Club completed a dominant performance in the final to win 6 and 5 at The Grange Golf Club in Adelaide.

Koh followed in the footsteps of Campbell (1992) and C E S Gillies (1899), the only other Kiwis to have won the event.

He continued that form back home. Koh came within one match of becoming the first Kiwi to win the Australian and NZ Amateur titles.

He battled valiantly with Munn in the final at the Nelson Golf Club - which will be remembered as one of the finest in the 121-year history of the event - to lose on the 37th hole.

He has also shown his ability in stroke play events. He finished runner-up in the New Zealand Stroke Play, runner-up in the North Island Stroke Play and third in qualifying for the NZ Amateur to comfortably lead the NZ Golf Order of Merit.

McCall is the most experienced of the three. In 2012 he announced himself on the local scene when he was the first golfer to win the New Zealand Amateur and the New Zealand Stroke Play titles in the same year for 24 years.

He was the leading individual for New Zealand at the 2012 World Amateur Team Championship in Turkey, when he finished in a share of 13th.

More recently, he was the first Kiwi to qualify for the US Amateur Championship since Danny Lee when he delivered the "best mental performance of my life" in 2013.

His best result in 2014 was finishing as leading amateur at the LawnMaster Classic on the Charles Tour and the selectors have backed him on his significant experience on the world stage.