16/01/09

After Gordon Yates just missed out on the title at the Mission Hills Asia-Pacific Open Amateur Championship, he and fellow Scottish international Ross Kellett deliver their first hand accounts of their season’s debut.
 
Gordon: “I finished tied second, beaten in a 3 way play off for the 2009 Asia Pacific Open Amateur Championship. Some of my highlights from today's round would have been the 55ft birdie putt I holed on the second hole, par 5. I then failed to get up and down for par on the par 3 5th hole, a hole that I played +3 for the week! I then had a string of pars until the 15th where once again, I short sided myself from the tee shot and failed to get up and down. One final twist to the regulation round, I birdied the long 17th holing a 35ft put from the lower tear of the green. In the play-off itself I had a good look at a birdie on the first hole, narrowly missing on the left, breaking at the final minute away from the hole! Then I hit a poor approach into a greenside bunker in the second hole, where the eventual winner (French international Alexandre Kaleka) hit a 3 iron to within 3ft to win.
 
It is a fantastic start to the season, I didn't expect to play quite so well as I haven't been on a course since the training camp in Portugal at the end of November. Also having to practice off mats in the cold, snow, rain - the typical Scottish winter, wasn't the best preparation as most of the competitors are in mid summer playing. However I managed to adapt to conditions straight away which was a massive bonus.

I have made some big swing changes with my coach Spencer Henderson so it is nice to see them working so well so early in the season. Hopefully I can maintain the form onto Australia for the Lake Macquarie Amateur and New South Wales Amateur.”
 
Ross: “I finished tied 31st. Considering my early scores weren't great I didn't finish all that badly. For the first tournament of the season I was happy with how I played, I hit lots of quality shots, however I hit a few errant ones as well which cost me around 10 shots. Considering the weather we have been practicing in all winter I’m pretty happy with how things have gone.

This has been a nice warm up for next week, hopefully I will start scoring a bit better when I get down under.

Mission Hills is an unbelievable place, like nothing we've ever seen before. No stone is left unturned in any department of the facility, hotel or golf course. It has been a great experience.”
 
Regards from us both.
 
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