16th May
2008
Impressive Griffin wins Keperra Bowl
Australia's number one amateur golfer, Matthew Griffin
(Victoria) has finished off a stellar Australian amateur
season with his second major victory, by taking out the
2008 Keperra Bowl this afternoon. Griffin held off charging
Queenslander Ray Beaufils (Surfers Paradise) and Tasmanian
Ryan McCarthy (Seabrook) in a thrilling finale to a great
week of golf at Keperra Country Golf Club.
Ray Beaufils closed with a 64 (-8) to finish one behind
Griffin opened with two 67's (-5) and then stumbled home
on his way to a third round 71 (-1). He hit the lead on
Wednesday during round 2 and then held the lead or a share
of the lead for the rest of the Championship.
The final round tested the young man from Victoria all
the way with Beaufils and McCarthy making a charge early.
Griffin managed to get off to a great start with a birdie
at the 1st hole. He then birdied the 5th (par 5) and 8th
(par 3) holes on his way to a 33 (-3) to lead after 9 holes
at 14 under (-14) par.
Beaufils was impressive today as he attacked the Keperra
layout, and opened with a front nine of 31 (-5). An unfortunate
bogey on the 10th hole after a slightly wayward drive, didn't
stop him. He recovered in sensational fashion to chip in
for an eagle 3 on the 11th to put himself right back in
contention at 12 under (-12) par. Another birdie on the
par 5 13th saw him draw closer.
Maybe the shot of the Championship was Beaufils 2nd to
the 16th. After a drive that finished left on an adjacent
tee, he managed to weave a fading 8 iron over trees to approximately
7 metres from the hole, and then sunk the putt for another
birdie. Closing pars would give him the clubhouse lead at
14 under par and he waited to see what Griffin would do.
McCarthy put together his best career performance this
week and began the day at 8 under par. He eagled the 9th
hole to get his round going and turned at 12 under (-12)
par after a front nine of 32 (-4). Birdies at 11 and 12
got him to 14 under (-14) and tied with Griffin at that
point. A solid finish saw him par the final holes including
a 2 putt from around 20 metres on the treacherous 18th green.
Ryan McCarthy finished second with his career best performance
Griffin had the upper hand all day and while the others
waited for him to make a mistake, the cool customer from
Victoria Golf Club never flinched. His only blemmish was
the difficult par 3 12th which he bogeyed to drop back to
14 under par. He birdied the next hole (par 5 13th) to quickly
recover the outright lead and pars over the next few holes
gave him a one shot lead as he approached the last.
Griffin's approach to the difficult 18th hole was indifferent
and came up short, on the front fringe of the green, about
20 metres from the hole. His approach putt was a good one,
however a little shy and he left himself about 2 metres
short.
The final putt was as solid and confident as the rest of
his game this week and found the centre of the cup. Griffin
clinched his fist as the putt went in and it was obvious
to all present that the win meant a great deal to the young
man.
Queensland's 2 man team of Ray Beaufils and Brett Rankin
(Pacific) ended winning the 2 Man Teams Event with a total
of 19 under (-19) par. They were one shot ahead of the Victorian
and South Australian Teams.
While Griffin has stamped his position as number one amateur
in Australia with his win the week, its also great to see
Beaufils return to form after being dropped from Golf Australia's
National Squad last month. The Keperra Bowl signals the
end of the of the amateur season in Australia, and many
of the players this week will now head to Europe and the
USA to test their skills against the best in the world.
