Quiet, unassuming, deadly.
Those three words sum up Josh Younger, the Victorian with the clubhouse lead after a stellar opening round at the AV Jennings 2019 NSW Open today, with some of the best young golfers in Australia sitting just a shot back as the Twin Creeks course yielded an abundance of birdies.
Playing in the afternoon groups with Novocastrian Nick Flanagan (+5) and US tour player Rhein Gibson (-1), 35-year-old Younger took the short back nine apart with six straight birdies from 10 through 15, before throwing in another birdie at the 163m par-three 17th to make the turn in 29.
Yep, 29.
Younger then birdied the short par-three 2nd and the difficult 6th – finishing with birdies on every par three at Twin Creeks to hold a one-shot lead heading into tomorrow.
Asked about the start, Younger preferred to play it down.
“It’s day one, you can’t get too excited,” he said.
“You can’t get carried away, but it was nice to hit the ball so well, and to get lucky a few times when I didn’t.
“Just the work I’ve done over the past couple of months with my mental coach has been the big difference. It just clicked today.”
Lurking within a shot is the enigmatic Min Woo Lee who showed glimpses of his enormous potential with an eight-under round that included an eagle on the short par-four 12th.
And just a shot further back is Camden local Justin Warren who mixed eight birdies, an eagle and two bogeys in a fine performance. At -7 is a brace of talented youngsters including Travis Smyth, Nathan Barbieri and Dimmy Papadatos who fired a blemish-free seven-under.
