Albany Golf Club’s Sally Carey overcame some Arctic conditions and a field of 110 competitors to land the GolfWA Provincial title at Augusta GC.
With bitter temperatures and rain throughout the weekend, the 36-hole stroke play championship was a case of survival of the fittest, with players required to grit their teeth and battle hard to remain in contention.
Carey (pictured above) carded rounds of 84 and 81 against Augusta’s par of 72 to edge a nailbiting contest and post a one-stroke victory over Denmark Country Club’s Marion Nelson, who was hoping to win the event for the fourth consecutive year.
In becoming the first Albany member to win the tournament, Carey produced golf of great consistency on day two, despite the intermittent downpours, to set the clubhouse target in the PM/AM field.
Playing in the AM/PM field, Nelson did her best to chase Carey down over the back nine but a dropped shot at the last saw her brave bid for a ‘four-peat’ fall short by the narrowest margin as she recorded a 166 total. Sharing third a shot further back, meanwhile, were Joe Jones (Bunbury GC) and Gail Kneale (Busselton GC).
As was typical for the Provincial Tournament, there were plenty of other on- and off-course antics for the participants to get stuck into.
The stroke play event was preceded by 18 holes of Canadian Foursomes, with Chequers GC duo Keryn Thorpe and Robyn Woods leading home the field of 51 pairs with a fine total of 39 Stableford points.
Saturday night’s ‘Pirates and Wenches’ fancy dress dinner was magnificently supported, with Provincial stalwart Donna Crouch entertaining the crowd and awarding the coveted Provincial frock to Jenny Shanks of Mount Lawley GC. A record $2,776 for the Royal Flying Doctors service was raised, taking the total since the ceremonial dress was introduced in 2003 to almost $35,000.
A swashbuckling time was had by all at the ‘Pirates and Wenches’ themed dinner
Prize winners
Provincial Trophy = Sally Carey (Albany GC)
Best Nett = Joanne Havelberg (Pinjarra GC)
Adele Ludemann Trophy (Best Gross by a Sand Greens golfer) = Kylie Tremlett (Latham GC)
Eileen Dawson Shield = Gail Kneale & Colleen Ryan (Busselton GC)
View the final leaderboards here.
Our sincere thanks to all at Augusta Golf Club for hosting the event and ensuring all our players enjoyed such a positive experience.
