14-year-old Remuera Golf Club member Ryan Xie made the most of the light winds to record a six-under 66 to lock up the first spot as no one was able to match his clinical round that included six birdies, an eagle, and two bogeys.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n
He got off to a fast start with four birdies in his opening nine and an eagle at the par 5 11th<\/sup>\u00a0to get to six-under through 11 holes. He made another birdie on the 15th<\/sup>\u00a0but made back-to-back bogeys on the 16th<\/sup>\u00a0and 17th<\/sup>\u00a0to fall back to five. Xie was clutch playing the final hole, making a final birdie to post the day\u2019s best score.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n The birdie on the last also saw him move out of a log jam of players at five under, meaning a six-person playoff was needed to fill the final three spots in the New Zealand Open field.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n Joshua Bai (Akarana), Jordan Loof (PGA), Sam An (PGA), Sam McGill (Clearwater), Steven Oh (PGA), and Gavin Fairfax (Australia) all carded 67s and headed back to the 18th<\/sup>\u00a0hole to decide who\u2019d progress.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n The six played the first hole and made solid pars aside from Oh, who three-putted for a bogey and was eliminated.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n The remaining five players headed to the 18th<\/sup>\u00a0for the second extra hole. Fairfax and Bai played the 18th<\/sup>\u00a0clinically, hitting the fairway and the green in regulation to take the pressure off as the others had missed the fairway and then the green. Bai two-putted for par to book his spot while Fairfax rolled in a 15-foot birdie putt to join the 16-year-old.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n Loof, An, and McGill went to the third extra hole. An and McGill both secured pars before Loof stood over an 18-foot birdie putt, where he summoned memories from a couple of weeks ago when he won the Brian Green Property Group NZ Super 6s in a playoff. He subsequently rolled in the birdie and celebrated in a similar fashion, letting out all his emotions.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t know how much this means,\u201d said an emotional Loof.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n The four players are the final golfers to make up the New Zealand Open field, which gets under this Thursday.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n Coverage begins at 2pm on Sky Sport 6.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n The field is now set for the 102nd\u00a0New Zealand Open following Final Qualifying at Cromwell Golf Club today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"