Steven Lam ended the season on a high by holing a 15-foot birdie putt on the final green to claim the Mizuno Hong Kong Close Amateur Championship in dramatic fashion at a frigid Fanling over the Lunar New Year.
Nineteen-year-old Lam, who had entered the final round with a three-shot advantage over perennial championship contender Max Wong, looked to have ruined his chances of a second victory in the tournament after three-putting the 16th green to give the experienced Wong, who birdied the same hole, a slender lead coming down the last.
But after Lam's clutch putt, which was set up by a fine six-iron from 170 yards, Wong agonisingly missed a four footer for par that would have taken the championship to a sudden-death play-off.
"It feels great to have won because it was such a tough day," admitted Lam, who last won the tournament in 2009 and booked his berth at November's Hong Kong Open by virtue of the victory. "I knew I had to make a birdie on 18 to have any chance, but it was hard on Max. I didn't expect him to bogey."
It was indeed hard on Max. Wong, who had been outdriving Lam consistently throughout the round, had clawed his way back into the reckoning thanks to a stellar display on the greens.
The miss on the last was wholly uncharacteristic, not that the man himself was complaining once the groans from the gallery assembled by the green had died down. "Hey, I tried," said Wong.
Lam, who finished on a four-round total of 287 (seven-over-par) – one ahead of Wong and three ahead of another past champion, Roderick de Lacy Staunton – has experienced a rather topsy-turvy year. At the same event in 2011, he was well off the pace, finishing 12 strokes behind winner Shinichi Mizuno, who put in a stout defence of his title, carding a fine final-round 68 to finish in fourth. Overlooked for Hong Kong's Putra Cup team in September, Lam then struggled at the UBS Hong Kong Open qualifying event at Kau Sai Chau, slumping to a second-round 81 over a course on which he holds the amateur course record – 65. Not the kind of displays that Lam, who has been put in the shade by the likes of Jason Hak, Liu Lok-tin and Mizuno in recent times, would like to be reminded of.
But there have been highlights. On the HKGA summer tour of the United States, Lam finished one-under-par at the prestigious SCPGA Jack Kramer Memorial tournament to place fifth and then carded three solid rounds at the rain-shortened Masters Golf Fashion Hong Kong Open Amateur at Discovery Bay in October to earn second place and end the tournament as the top Hong Kong player. That performance, combined with this Fanling win, helped Lam to the 2011/2012 HKGA Order of Merit title.
"I haven't played my best for a long time," admitted Lam, who is eyeing a university place in September. "But I'm trying harder now. It's been difficult because a lot of my time has been taken up with school work and exams but I'm more focused than I have been for a long time and I'm really looking forward to playing in the Hong Kong Open again and playing good golf again."–Alex Jenkins
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