Crowe, Wong win Australian Master of the Amateurs

Harrison Crowe and Jeneath Wong have taken out the Men’s and Women’s Australian Master of the Amateurs at Victoria Golf Club in Melbourne.

Crowe needed to dig deep to secure his one stroke win over Konrad Ciupek and Andre Lautee closing with a birdie on the last to secure his wire-to-wire victory.

Jeneath Wong and Harrison Crowe celebrate their wins (Credit: Anthony Powter)

“I did not make it easy out there for me and needed to really stuck in there for this victory,” said Crowe.

“I had a lot of players closing in on me especially at the end and it got very tight. The birdie at the last was a relief and to win this event is just massive for me.”

Crowe began the final round with an overnight lead of four after rounds of 68-70-72 and a final round of even par 72 to finish at 6-under-par. He put pressure on himself with a wayward tee shot on the short par 4 15th, leading to a double bogey and followed that with a bogey on the par 3 16th to move back to 5-under.

Standing on the 18th, Crowe knew he needed a birdie to get the win after Lautee made birdie on the last.

“I knew a birdie was needed when I was standing on the 18th tee and managed to hit a nice drive an approach,” said Crowe.

“Those two putts where arguably the toughest I done, but I really knuckled out at the end to make birdie on the last.”

Wong in contrast enjoyed having a buffer on the final day after opening with rounds of 70-70-74 to close with a 70 to finish at 4-under-par for a seven shot victory over Belinda Ji.

“It was a really good experience playing this event,” said Wong.

“I was able to play well and managed to keep the ball in play and I putted well. This is a great win for me.”

Whilst the field was effected by Covid-19 issues preventing many International players from attending, including what usually is a very strong US and European presence, there was still a strong presence of players from Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.

This was the third of the three years that Victoria Golf Club has hosted these championships and the layout came up brilliantly. The greens were superb and new tees presented options for the players.

Add to the mix a list of impressive sponsors and you can see why this tournament is a blueprint for others and rightfully sits as one of the world amateur events players want to win.