The 2025 Canterbury Match Play concluded yesterday afternoon following 5 rounds of competitive action, which saw the cream rise to the top in all divisions. The Harewood Golf Club was presented in great condition with pure greens and challenging thick rough providing a suitable surface and test for the event.
Saturday’s qualifying round was played in sunny conditions but with some testing winds which strengthened throughout the afternoon. For the men’s and U19’s division where entries exceeded 16, players were playing for not only seedings for the round of 16 to follow, but to remain in the main part of the draw. In the men’s defending champion Sam McGill scored the best with his 3 under round of 69, Ricky Kang and Kevin Bang also managed par rounds of 72 to take the 2nd and 3rd seeds respectively while at the other end Sam McCarroll’s round of 80 secured the final 16th position with the other 6 players transitioning out to the Men’s Div 2 division. In the Women’s qualifying, with 12 total entries, a first-round BYE was up for grabs for the top 4 players. Canterbury representative Junie Chang topped the qualifying with her even round of 72, while Queenie Lang, Lannie Inoue, and Lulu Lang claimed the other first-round passes. In the Men’s Masters, there was one first-round BYE spot up for grabs to the top-performing player, and that went to James Howard with his one-over round of 73 to get the top spot on countback from Joseph Larson. Finally, in the U19 men’s division, the top qualifying performance was undertaken by James Mordaunt with his round of 75, followed by Darren Kung, Sam Smith, and Louis Edwards, all getting the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th seeds respectively. At the other end, the final 16th seed spot went to Lochie Horne with his round of 88, with the final two U19 players moving into the Men’s Div 2 competition.
So, with day 1 completed the Round of 16 brackets for the Match Play rounds were finalised with play commencing early Sunday morning. In the men’s division, one of the exciting match-up’s was the match between Etienne Collier (6) and Thomas Clayson (11) which in a match which was tight throughout, eventually saw the 11th seed Clayson prevail 2/1. Otherwise, all other top 8 seeds managed to navigate their round of 16 matches and progress to the quarterfinals. In the women’s division, with the top 4 seeds enjoying a BYE the middle seeds were left to fight it out. Two of the standout matches were that of the contest between Vanessa Lim (6) and Eva Yin (11), with Lim winning 2/1, and additionally the match between Amber Boyce (12) and Zaria Bourne (5) which went all the way to the 19th before Bourne sunk a huge distance putt to take it out. In the Masters, there were a few high-seeded players who managed victories. This included Russell Fildes (13) winning his match against Moon Seok Kang (4), and Woo Bong Kim (12) winning his contest against Jordon Latter (5), most other top seeds advanced. In the U19 men’s Round of 16, practically all top 8 seeds progressed with the exception of 3rd seed Sam Edwards who was beaten 3/2 by Tejas Madan (14.)
Onto Sunday afternoons quarterfinals the tournament progressed with the grinding nature of this tournament starting to show its teeth with the winds well and truly getting up. In the men’s division, there were some cracking match up’s with all matches going to at least the 15th hole. The matches between Sam McGill (1) vs Uny Shao (8) and Jake Roberts (5) vs Ethan Lam (4) were particularly tight, both finishing on the 18th green. Eventually, McGill and Roberts both won 1up to join both Kevin Bang and Ricky Kang in the semi’s who also won their respective quarterfinal matches. In the women’s, with the top 4 seeds rejoining the event there was again some great match-up’s. The closest match however, was the contest between Canterbury teammates Lannie Inoue (3) and Vanessa Lim (6) which went to the 17th before Inoue won out 2/1. Elsewhere top-seed Junie Chang (1) won comfortably as well as Queenie Lang (2), but with her sister Lulu Lang (4) falling to Zaria Bourne (5) by 3/2. In the Masters, the tightest match was between defending champion Michael Bailey (6) and Leon Yee (3), with Bailey eventually winning 2/1. Elsewhere, Joseph Larson (2), James Howard (1), Russell Fildes (14) also progressed. In the U19’s all four matches were tight and went to atleast the 17th hole. James Mordaunt (1) beat Kohl Thompson-Small (8) 2/1, Darren Kung (2) also won by the same margin with Louis Edwards (4) and Tejas Madan (14) both winning 1Up in their matches.
With the quarterfinals complete, the tournament proceeded to the third and final day on Labour Day. In the men’s the semi finals were Sam McGill (1) vs Jake Roberts (5) and Thomas Clayson (11) vs Ricky Kang (2). McGill managed to overcome Roberts on the 14th hole winning 5/4 while Ricky Kang was pushed almost all the way before eventually putting Clayson away 2/1. In the ladies, Junie Chang (1) out-muscled Zaria Bourne (5) 5/3 while Queenie Lang (2) defeated Lannie Inoue (3) by a margin of 3/2. In the Masters, top seed James Howard was pushed all the way to the 20th by Russell Fildes (14) before eventually beating him on the second play-off hole. The other match was almost as tight with Joseph Larson eventually beating the defending champion Michael Bailey 1Up. In the U19’s, Louis Edwards (4) continued his strong weekend as he defeated top seed James Mordaunt 4/3 while Darren Kung (2) finally put the strong run of Tejas Madan to an end winning 5/3.
Onto the final afternoon we went with some great finals match-up’s, with practically every division’s top seeds after qualifying making it to the final round. The men’s division saw defending champ Sam McGill taking on Otago representative Ricky Kang in what was the third occasion the pair had met in match play. McGill started well and established a 3up lead near the halfway point, but Kang rallied and got the match back to a 1up margin by the 15th. With McGill winning the 16th hole however he held a 2up lead on the 17th where was able to halve the hole and win the match 2/1 sparking emotional celebratory scenes as he became one of few players to go back-to-back in this tournament which has been running since 1906.
In the ladies final, Junie Chang came up against Auckland’s Queenie Lang in what was always going to be a tight affair. Chang started well going up by 3 through 5 holes but Lang fought back and was winning 1Up after the 15th. The match however turned again with Chang winning 16 to go all square, and after the pair halved 17 it was all on the line playing 18. However, it Junie Chang that handled the moment the best, winning the last to claim her first Canterbury Women’s Match Play title.
The Masters final again saw the top two seeds from qualifying meet in James Howard and Joseph Larson. The match started tight throughout the opening 4 holes with pair trading blows to sit square, Larson then managed to put his foot on the gas reaching a 3up lead after 13 holes. However, Howard responded winning 14, 16, and 17 to get the match back to all square playing the last. The pair couldn’t be separated however as the rain became heavy and they proceeded to a play-off hole, during which Howard’s comeback was complete prevailing to win the Masters prize.
Finally, in the u19 division Darren Kung and Louis Edwards met both looking for their first u19 Canterbury Match Play title. Kung struck an early blow winning the first before the pair played out 5 holes evenly before a few wins from either side throughout the middle holes. Edwards went one up after 12, only for Kung to respond winning 13 and 15 to go down the 17th 1up. He was able to finish the job there winning the hole to win the contest 3/1.
View the full tournament photo album – HERE.
Click below to see the full results for each division.
