With rounds of 71 and 69, Jeremy Hall (Greenacres) claimed top honours in the Lakes District Championship over 36 holes in Arrowtown on Saturday.
Hall had three birdies and four bogies in his morning round to finish on 71 tied for the lead at lunch with Nick Borren (Otago) and Callum Judkins (Wakatipu Junior).
In the afternoon, players had to contend with a testing breeze but the Southland representative handled the conditions with a 1-under-par 69 to finish on par for the day.He was four shots clear of Jack Turner who also played well in the afternoon adding a par 70 to his morning round of 74.
Trialists Brandon Hodgson (Otago) and Sungwoo Han (Queenstown) tied with Queenstown’s Joel Popplewell on 146 while local player Chris Yallop shot 73 and 74 to take sixth.
Lunchtime leaders Judkins and Borren fell off the pace in the afternoon carding 78 and 79 respectively.
Duncan Croudis played in the event as a warmup for his first professional start in the Harewood Open and showed the way in the morning with a 3-under-par 67.
He was looking like posting the best score of the day at level par after 13 holes but made five consecutive bogeys coming home to finish two shots behind Hall.