{"id":3658,"date":"2014-10-27T16:55:05","date_gmt":"2014-10-27T06:25:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grangegolf.com.au\/cms\/?p=3658"},"modified":"2023-06-20T16:46:30","modified_gmt":"2023-06-20T07:16:30","slug":"asia-pacific-amateur-champion-anthony-murdaca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grangegolf.com.au\/cms\/2014\/10\/asia-pacific-amateur-champion-anthony-murdaca\/","title":{"rendered":"Asia-Pacific Amateur Champion Anthony Murdaca"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"AnthonyThe Grange Golf Club’s\u00a0Antonio Murdaca is going to Augusta \u2014 even sooner than he thought.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The dual Australian junior champion, 19, booked himself a 2015 Masters berth with a commanding seven-stroke victory at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship at Royal Melbourne.<\/p>\n

But in post-round discussions with Augusta National chairman Billy Payne, Murdaca won an invaluable additional prize.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Payne) invited me to the course for a few practice rounds, so I am really looking forward to getting there,\u201d beamed Murdaca, who, as an amateur, will have the option of staying in the clubhouse\u2019s famous Crow\u2019s Nest during tournament week in April.<\/p>\n

Murdaca, who led from early on Friday and by eight before the final round, turned in a dominant frontrunning effort to beat Japan\u2019s Horikawa Mikumu with a closing 71 to finish 13-under par on the revised Composite Course.<\/p>\n

He admitted to a restless Saturday night with thoughts of the prize within his grasp, yet the only time The Grange pennant star wobbled was with bogeys on the seventh and ninth holes as his lead shrunk to five.<\/p>\n

But with birdies on the 10th and 14th to restore his mighty buffer, he even allowed himself a moment on the 18th to revel in his achievement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was standing over that second (last) shot thinking, \u2018Wow, imagine if I get to the Masters. Imagine how many people there are going to be,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAfter I hit that shot \u2026 I had a tingling feeling down my spine and started to think of Augusta.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is pretty special considering the reward you get.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been working hard all year, hunting for a win and I finally got one and I think I found the right event to win.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just can\u2019t wait. The field, the atmosphere, playing Augusta, it\u2019s a dream come true. It\u2019s just so exciting to think about next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murdaca, who took the Saturday night advice of former British Open champion Ian Baker-Finch to \u201ckeep it in play\u201d, said he \u201cdidn\u2019t overthink\u201d his final round, making a succession of tap-in pars rather than ramming birdie tries past the cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was confident and \u2026 I felt like I handled myself pretty well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Murdaca, who had 21 birdies and an eagle through the tournament, was the only player to better par each round with only 11 finishing in red numbers.<\/p>\n

He joins an already strong Aussie contingent heading to Georgia alongside the already exempt Adam Scott, Jason Day, John Senden and Geoff Ogilvy, while Marc Leishman is also on the verge of qualification courtesy of his world ranking.<\/p>\n

Murdaca\u2019s win capped a solid week for the young Aussie contingent at Royal Melbourne, with five in the top eight and all 10 in the top 37.<\/p>\n

Melbourne pair Todd Sinnott (71 to finish -5) and Ryan Ruffels (68 to finish -3) finished third and fourth respectively, while fellow Victorians Geoff Drakeford and Lucas Herbert were tied for eighth at one under.<\/p>\n

Adelaide Now Link here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Grange Golf Club’s\u00a0Antonio Murdaca is going to Augusta \u2014 even sooner than he thought.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The dual Australian junior champion, 19, booked himself … Read More <\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3659,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[59,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guests-news","category-members-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grangegolf.com.au\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grangegolf.com.au\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grangegolf.com.au\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grangegolf.com.au\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grangegolf.com.au\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3658"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.grangegolf.com.au\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28522,"href":"https:\/\/www.grangegolf.com.au\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3658\/revisions\/28522"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grangegolf.com.au\/cms\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grangegolf.com.au\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grangegolf.com.au\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grangegolf.com.au\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}