Former IAS golfer Travis Smyth has an Australian Open berth on his radar after the impressive 19-year-old claimed the Queensland Men’s Amateur Championship last weekend. Smyth survived a mammoth week of golf to eventually secure his first national circuit amateur win in a tense 36-hole final. Leading by one heading into the last hole, the Illawarra teenager showed nerves of steel to hold off fellow New South Welshman Troy Moses. Riding a wave of confidence, Smyth now plans to try his luck at qualifying for the Australian Open next month. “I am trying to pre-qualify for the Australian Open in a tournament in the last week of November. Hopefully I can get in,” he said. Smyth has already secured a berth in next month’s NSW Open courtesy of his spot in the state’s representative squad. He has spent a large portion of the past few months playing off against some of America’s best amateurs where he finished with a number of top-10 finishes. The form translated to more strong displays in Australia, eventually culminating in his Queensland Men’s Amateur Championship. He said his confidence continued to grow throughout the tournament. “After the Keperra Bowl [tournament] I felt pretty confident and I played well in the strokeplay, and then the matchplay is a completely different game. “I’ve had good experience with it before, so once I won my first couple I thought I can actually take this out,” Smyth said. “I went on from there and took it one stroke at a time to finally get a victory. It is my first ever national win.” Smyth plans to take most of December off before launching himself at several tournaments in January. The Australian Amateur, NSW Amateur and Lake Macquarie Amateur are all on his radar in the New Year. He plans to continue hammering away on the amateur circuit before eventually chasing his dreams in the big time. “It is the goal to make the PGA Tour when I am professional in a couple of years time,” Smyth said. “At the moment I am an amateur, so I will keep living in Australia and in a few years’ time I will turn pro and see where it goes from there.”
