Golfing young guns take centre stage at Australian Open

Darren Walton | December 1, 2023

It was almost amateur hour at the Australian Open in Sydney as golf’s future stars announced their arrivals on the big stage.

A day after 16-year-old Rachel Lee claimed a surprise share of the first-round lead in the women’s event, her fellow Endeavour Sports High graduate Jeffrey Guan shook up the men’s order at the dual-gender showpiece.

Guan’s six-under-par 66 at The Lakes on Friday rocketed the 19-year-old prodigy 50 places up the leaderboard into a tie for sixth in his daring bid to steal the Stonehaven Cup from some of the game’s biggest names.

“I actually didn’t know that. Yeah, it was good to get my game sort of sorted these past couple of weeks,” Guan said after being told he’d charged into the top 10.

“I actually hit 18 greens today, which kind of helped. I feel like I left a couple of putts out there on the front nine but, other than that, I played all right.”

Guan, who only turned professional a month ago, is beautifully placed for a weekend assault at The Australian, his home track where the precocious talent won the club championship as an 18-year-old in 2018.

He’s also backing a trio of young-gun amateurs threatening to upstage the established stars in the women’s Open.

As well as Lee, who was hanging tough just one stroke off the lead midway through her windy second round at The Australian on Friday afternoon, the Queensland pair Justice Bosio, 19, and Sarah Hammett, 16, made morning moves.

Both Bosio and Hammett are in the Golf Australia high-performance programs, and they proved their bona fides in style.

Bosio stormed into a tie for fifth with a four-under 69 at The Lakes, while Hammett is one stroke back after a one-under 71 at The Australian.

Bosio has been runner-up in the Australian amateur championship the past two years, while Hammett won last year’s NSW amateur title on the same day Harrison Crowe took out the men’s event before earning a ticket to the Masters and British Open.

But even bigger spoils could be within the pair’s grasp on Sunday.

“Yeah, I know them quite well,” Guan said of Bosio and Hammett.

“They’re obviously really great players and it’s no surprise to see them up there.”