Aussie golfer Sinnott leads Masters quest

Lanky Australian Todd Sinnott has grabbed an early edge in the battle for a US Masters spot with a fine start to the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship at Royal Melbourne.

The 20-year-old from Melbourne shot a five-under-par 67 first round to be the clubhouse leader among Thursday’s morning starters.

The best 120 amateurs in the region are playing the four-round strokeplay event with Sunday’s winner to earn the coveted prize of a place in the Masters field at Augusta National in April.

“There’s a long way to go yet,” cautioned Sinnott after taking advantage of the benign morning conditions over Royal Melbourne’s famous composite layout.

Sinnott led by one shot from the 2012 champion, Tianlang Guan.

The young Chinese won the event that year and went on to make history as the youngest player to tee up in the Masters as a 14-year-old in 2013, making the cut and finishing leading amateur.

Sinnott finished his round with a flourish, rolling in birdie putts on the par five 17th (three metres) and the par four 18th (five metres) but said the best putt of his round was on the sixth hole.

“It was only about four metres but it had some serious left to right break on it,” he said.

Sinnott cut his golfing teeth at Kooringal golf club in Melbourne’s west after his mum and dad took him there for a game in his early teenage years.

“Before that I was mainly into basketball and Australian rules,” he said, “but soon I was hooked.”

He finished sixth in the WA Open last week and is looking forward to playing in the Australian Masters next month at Metropolitan, the club for which he plays pennant golf.

A powerful hitter, Sinnott used his driver only twice during his round.

“This is a course where you need to contain yourself. It’s all about positioning the ball. You can make double bogey here as quickly as you can make a birdie by attacking,” Sinnott said.

Emerging Melbourne amateur, Ryan Ruffels, 16, son of former Australian tennis professional, Ray Ruffels, opened with a 71.

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