Brett Rumford became the second
amateur in a week to upstage the professionals when he won the
Australian Players' Championship after a play-off on Sunday.
Rumford, 22, holed a 25-foot birdie putt on the fourth
play-off hole at the par-73 Royal Queensland course to beat
fellow Australian Craig Spence.
The win by Rumford followed amateur Aaron Baddeley's
stunning triumph in the Australian Open in Sydney last weekend.
Baddeley, 18, became the first amateur to win that title
since Bruce Devlin in 1960.
Rumford, the 1998 Australian amateur champion, had fired a
closing five-under-par 68 to tie at 280 with Spence, who had a
closing 67.
The pair parred the play-off hole, the par-four 18th, three
times in their sudden-death battle before Rumford won.
Rumford and Spence finished one shot clear of Australians
Craig Parry (69), Brett Partridge (70), Brad King (73) and
Scotland's Raymond Russell (69)
280 B Rumford 68 73 71 68, C Spence 74 71 68 67 (Rumford won at the fourth
playoff hole)
281 B Partridge 73 69 69 70, C Parry 70 69 73 69, R Russell (Sco) 70 71 71 69
282 N O'Hern 73 67 74 68, R Pampling 71 70 70 71
283 G Chalmers 72 65 73 73
284 C Jones 73 72 69 70, D McKenzie 72 69 70 73, D Terblanche (Rsa) 71 73 69
71, G Dodd 67 73 71 73, J Moseley 70 69 71 74, M Cain 71 75 67 71, P Gow 69 71
74 70, R Backwell 71 72 70 71
