Cooper Moore wins Mt Open on Charles Tour
- Dave Worsley
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
Christchurch teenage golfer Cooper Moore held his composure to seal maiden Charles Tour win at the Mount Open
Held at the Mount Maunganui Golf Club the 17-year-old Golf New Zealand Academy player claimed his first Jennian Homes Charles Tour title.
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Challenging conditions on day one made scoring difficult and favoured the early half of the draw.
Defending champion Josh Geary set a blistering pace with seven birdies, but a double bogey on the par-5 15th saw him close at four-under.
Kerry Mountcastle opened with an eagle on 13 and finished two-under, while Ricky Kang raced to four-under through four holes before a tough back nine left him at even par.
Day two brought improved morning conditions before wind and rain returned in the afternoon.
Sam Jones posted the lowest round of the tournament to that point, firing a six-under 65 with five birdies and an eagle to reach nine-under overall.
Moore rebounded from a +1 start with a superb 66 that lifted him 15 places, while Tyler Wood was the biggest mover of the day, climbing 35 spots with a three-under round. Luke Kidd also rocketed into contention, producing five birdies and an eagle in a blistering run of six straight threes.
Near-perfect Saturday conditions paved the way for low scoring in Round 3, and Kerry Mountcastle took full advantage. The former New Zealand Amateur champion produced a bogey-free eight-under 63 – the lowest round of the tournament – with eight birdies to move into solo second.
Moore backed up his strong second round with another five-under 66 to stay in the hunt, while Jones overcame a rough start to card a steady 68 with six birdies. Geary’s mixed form continued, finishing even-par to sit seven shots adrift.
In the Women’s field, Yoonae Jeong edged ahead of Amy Tang by one shot, with Chloe So a further six shots back.
Overcast and chilly conditions greeted the players for the final round, and the leaders wasted no time getting below par; Mountcastle, Moore, and Jones all opening with birdies.
Geary also birdied the first as he chased back-to-back titles. The tournament turned on its head when Jones suffered a disastrous sextuple bogey 10 on the par-4 third.
To his credit, he responded with grit, steadying his round with a par at the fourth and a birdie at the par-5 fifth. Meanwhile, Moore’s Golf New Zealand Academy teammate Yuki Miya surged into contention with four birdies in his first five holes.
At the turn, Mountcastle remained bogey-free and two-under, matched by Moore as the pair set themselves apart. The decisive moment came on the par-3 17th with the pair tied at 12-under, where Moore hit a precise tee shot and rolled in the birdie putt to edge one clear.
Mountcastle could only make par. Both players found the green at 18. Mountcastle nearly forced a playoff with a 20-foot birdie putt that agonisingly hung on the lip of the hole, leaving Moore to calmly two-putt for par and the victory as the rain began to fall.
In the Women’s Amateur field, another Golf New Zealand Academy member Chloe So completed a huge turnaround with a one-under 70 on the final day to finish three shots clear of Yoonae Jeong in second.
The overall win marks Moore’s first Charles Tour title after coming close earlier at Race to Tieke, where he narrowly lost to Michael Hendry. At just 17 years old, the victory underlines his status as one of New Zealand golf’s brightest rising talents.
He said heading down the stretch in contention and eventually the lead could have been overwhelming as he’d been in a similar position before and not come away with the win, but he turned to his processes and trusted himself to remain calm.
“I probably went straight into my processes and sort of just stuck to them, I believed in them all week and it was nice get over the line and it’s a big boost heading into the next few weeks.
“I was quite nervous, I had a similar situation at Race to Tieke and let that one slide so didn’t want to let another chance slide.”
With two putts for victory Moore hit his first a few feet past the hole and had a tricky par putt to close it out after Mountcastle’s near-miss.
The win sets Moore up for a busy stretch where he will return to the Bay of Plenty for next week’s Carrus Tauranga Open, a 2025 Eisenhower Cup campaign in Singapore and swiftly followed by a trip to the United Arab Emirates to compete at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship.
