New Zealand’s Kazuma Kobori battled Melbourne’s notorious weather, lethargy and a head cold to post a flawless 5-under 66 for the clubhouse lead in the opening round of the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship.
Kobori survived a brutal morning of bitterly cold winds and sleeting rain at Royal Melbourne Golf Club. Starting on the ninth hole of the composite layout, he made four consecutive birdies through holes 10-13, adding another at the 17th before a miraculous par save at his last hole (the eighth).
“It was a hell of a round,” said the 22-year-old who is attempting to become the first Kiwi winner of an event where the winner is gifted invitations to compete in the following year’s Masters Tournament and The Open.
“If you had given me 5-under at the start of the day, I would have taken that in a heartbeat. Very happy to finish with a 66.
“It started raining pretty hard, and then like five minutes later, it’s like sun shining. I don’t know what that’s about. Everyone has got to deal with it so it’s not that bad. I rolled the ball pretty nicely on the greens, and I took advantage of the holes that were easy. You know, there’s no easy holes out there but some are harder than others. I took good advantage of them and had a few lucky breaks, and then just held on for dear life on the hard holes.”
Kobori has been on a tear this year having captured the Australian Men’s Amateur, recorded top-six results against the pros at both the NZ Open and NZ PGA while his victory in the prestigious Western Amateur in Chicago exempted him into forthcoming PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour events.
However Kobori arrived in Melbourne this week with a head cold after a 14-hour flight from Abu Dhabi where he took individual strokeplay honours at the World Amateur Teams Championship.
“I was under the weather last week. Just a cold. It was pretty hot and I didn’t quite adjust to that in time before the tournament started. I’m feeling a lot better. It was just the nose that was a bit annoying, mixed with the cold weather.”
Responding as to why he played so well in Abu Dhabi when beating the world’s best amateurs, he replied: “Probably low expectations. When you’re feeling that bad, you’re not really expecting to play that well.”
Just six players finished under par in round one. Australians Jasper Stubbs and Billy Dowling, and South Korea’s Hyun Uk Kim were two back of Kobori after posting 3-under 68s. China’s best were Wenyi Ding (69) and Zhou Ziqin (70).
Australia’s pre-tournament favourite Jeffrey Guan shot 2-over 73 while Japan’s Yuta Sugiura, the world No.16 and tournament’s highest-ranked player, struggled to an 8-over 79.
Stubbs credited local knowledge for his superb round. “I have a lot of friends who are members here, so I’ve come out since I was 14 or 15, and my younger sister was also the women’s club champion,” he said. “So I’ve played here with her. I know the course pretty well but it’s the first time I’ve seen it firm and fast like this.”
Stubbs said he was relishing playing in an event that counts major champions like Hideki Matsuyama (2010, 2011 Asia Pacific champion) and Cameron Smith as past competitors.
“It’s awesome. I mean, some of the names that have come before me that we see up on the big stage now, hopefully one day I can put my name alongside those, and yeah, the opportunity has been great so far. Really enjoying the week and I’m hoping to just keep going.”
