Nadene Gole and James Lavender went back-to-back to add the WA Senior Amateur titles to the Australian Senior Amateur crowns they won last week.
Royal Perth GC hosted the 54-hole WA Senior Amateur Championships, which were boosted by a large contingent of eastern states’ players who stayed on after last week’s national championship at Lake Karrinyup.
Victorian duo Gole and Lavender (pictured above) currently lead the Australian Senior Order of Merit tables and they re-emphasised their superiority at Royal Perth to post respective three- and four-stroke victories.
Senior women’s world number one Gole held a two-stroke advantage after 36 holes but didn’t get off to the best start on the final day, opening with a double-bogey six and playing her front nine in five-over.
However, her nearest challenger, defending champion Sue Wooster, was unable to fully capitalise, and a double bogey of her own on the 8th stalled her progress.
Gole was able to steady the ship on the back nine, coming home in 39 (+2) to clinch a three-stroke victory from Wooster and the fast-finishing Sharon Dawson of Denmark Country Club, who was one-under for her back nine to share second place.
Denmark CC’s Sharon Dawson enjoyed an excellent final day to finish T2nd
The championship marked Gole’s final competitive event of the year as she prepares for surgery and she expressed her satisfaction at getting the job done.
“My game wasn’t that sharp this week, but I knew I wouldn’t be playing golf for a long time because of the surgery, and that was a little bit of a driver for me over the last nine holes. I knew I had to make the most of it,” Gole told GolfWA.
For Lavender, his win was all the sweeter after an early-morning visit to the range on day three enabled him to rediscover his A-Game.
“I wasn’t playing too well yesterday, so I went to the practice area this morning and all of a sudden, with just a simple narrowing of my stance, the ball started coming out just the way I wanted it to,” he told GolfWA.
Having started the final round a stroke adrift of leaders Brad Dowling and Graham Hourn, Lavender turned on the style as he hit 17 greens in regulation in returning a best-of-the-championship round of 71 (one under par).
It enabled him to turn a one-stroke deficit into a four-stroke victory from Hourn and home-club favourite Peter Bennett with a four-over-par 54-hole total of 220.
Lavender will now go on to represent Australia at the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation’s Senior Amateur Championship in Vietnam next month.
- View the final men’s leaderboard
- View the final women’s leaderboard
- The full list of prize winners can be accessed here
- View a gallery of images on our Facebook page here
Royal Perth’s Peter Bennett put up a strong title bid on his home track
