Perth’s Jess Whitting is an unofficial Ladies European Tour winner after the final round of the Australian Women’s Classic was abandoned at Bonville Golf Resort.
A wild storm that lashed the Coffs Coast on Saturday night dumped a further 80mm of rain on the Bonville golf course, taking the total tally of rainfall to more than 200mm in 72 hours.
After an inspection of the course and lengthy deliberation, officials had no option but to cancel Sunday’s final round and declare Whitting, Denmark’s Nicole Broch Estrup and Taipei’s Peiying Tsai as joint winners after the trio fired opening rounds of 66 (six-under-par).
With only 18 of the tournament’s planned 54 holes played due to poor weather, the victory will be classed as unofficial in the tour records, with no ranking points awarded and prize money not counted on the official money list.
Jess Whitting during her opening-round 66 at Bonville
Emotions were bitter-sweet for Whitting, who is still seeking to play her way onto a major world tour. “It’s hard,” she said. “I wanted a chance to go out there and play and prove myself.
“But then also, this is kind of a great outcome too because who knows, I could have gone out there and not played well and moved further down the ranks. We will never know. It was out of my control, but I’m pretty excited. It’s a pretty cool thing to write down on the resume.”
As a show of goodwill, tournament promoters Golf NSW will issue a $500 payment to every player in the field to assist in travel costs incurred during the week.
Elsewhere in the field, WA’s Kirsten Rudgeley finished in T11th after carding a three-under-par 69 in round 1. View the final scores here.
Images: Ladies European Tour
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