Purcell marches on in men's Australian Amateur

Portmarnock’s Conor Purcell has breezed into the last-32 of the Australian Men’s Amateur at Woodland’s Golf Club after an impressive victory in round one of the Matchplay stages in Melbourne.

Conor Purcell / Image from Cashman photography
Having qualified in third spot after a stunning 65 yesterday, the World Amateur Number 104 put away Australia’s Connor McKinney 4&2 and will now face Japan’s Keita Nakajima in round two tomorrow.
 
Remarkably, top seed David Micheluzz, who blew the field away in the strokeplay by eight shots, met his maker in round one of the knockouts as number 64 seed, Harrison Crowe pulled off an unlikely victory.
 
Crowe, still just 17, took down the new world No.6 with a quality 2&1 victory that belied his last-man-in status as No.64 seed.
 
“It feels amazing. I did fight towards the end to grind out a victory and a few birdies helped, so I’m rapt, yeah,” beamed Crowe, who’d amazingly been four shots adrift of the eventual cut line with just nine holes to play on Wednesday, contemplating an early flight home.
 
Micheluzzi, impressively humble and respectful, admitted he was flat, but was full of praise for his conqueror.
 
“Harrison played really well the first three holes (par, eagle, birdie) so I was down early, tried my hardest to fight back but he made two or three birdies in the last five holes as well,” said Micheluzzi, who was a record 16 under par with two course record eight-under-par rounds to be medallist.
 
“Credit to him, he’s a very fine young player and when I found out he was just 17 I was a bit shocked, he was bombing it past me.
 
“Tonight I’ll probably be a little angry, but at the end of the day it’s just a round of golf. These things happen and I played well the last few days and that’s what I’m going to focus on.”