The 17-year-old has only been in town a short time, but he has made a big impression on the golfing community.

A share of second place ahead of some highly regarded golfers in Saturday's Charlestown Cup was followed by victory in the Hunter Region Combined High Schools strokeplay championships at Toronto Country Club yesterday.

The Newcastle club member shot 74 in the morning to be a shot behind Belmont's Daniel Buyers. A repeat in the afternoon was enough to seal victory by one stroke.

"My pop plays golf and my uncle also plays so it runs in the family a bit, I guess," Santi said after his win yesterday.

"One day I'm hoping to play professionally and earn a living from it.

"I didn't think 74 would be enough coming in, but I got just got there."

Charlestown's Brayden Petersen made bogey at the 36th hole to drop back into a tie for second with playing partner Daniel Buyers from the Belmont club at 149.

Santi came in and posted 148 but had to wait half an hour for Matt Kelly to finish because he also went out in 74.

Kelly carded a disappointing 79 in the afternoon and Santi was crowned strokeplay champion and No.1 seed for the match play event.

The top eight players from yesterday's strokeplay qualify for the match play and the winner will represent the Hunter in the NSW Match Play Championships at Blackheath Golf Club from April 29 to 30.

Mount View High student Jessica Kelly, representing The Vintage, won the Hunter Region CHS girls' match play event at Toronto yesterday and will represent the region at the state championships.

Kelly beat Wingham's Maitlan Brown 8 and 6 in the final.

¦ Charlestown professional James Nitties shot a second-round 66 to get within two shots of the lead at the Peurto Rico Open before play was suspended six holes into his third round yesterday.

Nitties was 10 under par in the rain-affected tournament that officials are hoping will finish today, and shared sixth place with five other players.

Americans Kevin Streelman and Chad Collins shared the lead at 12 under par when play stopped, and three other players were within range at 11 under.

Nitties had missed the cut in his first six events on the US PGA Tour and is in line for his first cheque in his second season on the world's richest tour.