JOSHUAA Robards would love nothing more than to finish his junior golf career by taking out the Adidas 6s Invitational national final at Newcastle on Tuesday.
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Robards, who turned 18 in July, carded rounds of 76,74 to be at six over, 11 strokes behind leader Harry Takis after a rain-soaked opening day.
Ella Scaysbrook (five over) is the leading Hunter player. Jake Riley (77,74) is a stroke behind Robards.
Harry Atkinson (74,80), Brij Ingrey (79,86) and Jasmin Vesper (84,83) are well outside the top eight which is at three-over after 36 holes.
The top eight from the boys and girls after 18 holes on Tuesday progress to the 6s section. The knockout format consists of six-holes of match play, with the winner progressing to the next round,
The invitational is a world ranking amateur event. Nine players will receive exemptions to professional tournaments, including the NSW Open.
Robards, a member at Newcastle, is not out of contention but has ground to make up. A win would be an added bonus.
In an incredible month, Robards finished joint winner alongside Jeffrey Guan in the NSW Junior Championships last week to earn a start at the NSW Open in March. That followed accepting a full scholarship at the University of Missouri next year and scoring an ATAR of 88.85 in the higher school certificate.
As well as play on the golf team, Robards will study either aerospace or electrical engineering at the Kansas City campus.
"I got offered a full scholarship which is pretty cool," Robards said. "I did really well in my SAT, scoring 1390, which put me in the top five per cent. I was lucky that the school offered me a 60 per cent academic base [scholarship] so the golf coach only had to offer 40 per cent to top it up.
"Missouri is a division one school and has about 20,000 students. It is a highly regarded academic school with big medical and engineering faculties. I have the academic side to fall back on if the golf doesn't come off."
Robards starts his US college adventure in August. In the meantime, his focus will be on improving his golf game.
After parking the clubs in the shed in the lead-up to the HSC, Robards burst back onto the scene at the State Junior Championships at Mount Broughton.
He fired rounds of 68,71,68 to be at nine-under alongside Guan entering the final round. Playing together, Guan had jumped out to a three-stroke lead after 11 holes when severe storms suspended play for the day.
"They told us at the start, if it gets called at any time in the final round, it will be reduced to 54 holes and whoever is the leader at that point will be the winner," Robards said. "It would have been better to win outright, but we agreed the NSW Open start was the most important thing out of it and we both got one. There were no complaints in that regard.
"For eight weeks before it, with the HSC, I had only been playing the occasional Saturday round. I went down there thinking 'this is my last Jack Newton event and I'll just have a bit of fun'."
After the Junior 6s Invitational, Robards will compete in the Master of the Amateurs (January 7-10), Australian Amateur (January 14-19), NSW Amateur (January 20-24) and the Avondale Open Medal (January 28-31).
"I'm playing as much golf as I can and working to try and save some money to go to the US," Robards said.
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IN THE NEWS:
James Gardiner
James Gardiner, chief football and rugby writer at the Newcastle Herald.
James Gardiner, chief football and rugby writer at the Newcastle Herald.
