One of the biggest women’s tournaments in the state is back for another year, this time to be played at Royal Fremantle.
Kicking off Monday, the 72-hole championship will be one to watch, featuring a hotly contested field full of up and coming Western Australian and Interstate talent.
You have to look back to 2013 for the last time a West Aussie won the Classic. Hannah Green proved too good for the field that year and we all know how far her golf has taken her. Since then, the title has been shared between golfers from Queensland and New South Wales.
New South Welshman June Song took the title last year following the event’s cancellation due to Covid in 2020. That event was played at the Classic’s spiritual home of Lake Karrinyup. The Avondale Golf Club member will return to defend her title this year, hoping to join Edwina Kennedy (NSW), Ericka Jayatilaka (WA), Rebecca Stevenson (Qld), Sarah Kemp (NSW) and Becky Kay (Qld) as a back-to-back champion.
As mentioned above however, the field is full of talent and June will have to produce another standout performance to taste victory in the West once again.
Joondalup’s Celine Chen and Lake Karrinyup’s Sheridan Clancy head up a WA stable full of talent this year. Both members of the GolfWA State Squads, Chen is the reigning Amateur Champion of WA, whilst Clancy won the amateur event at the TPS Murray River event back in February.
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Abbie Teasdale will also grace the field following her highly successful trip over to the UK where she triumphed in the English Amateur Championship. Her hot run of form holds her in high regard heading into play at Royal Fremantle.
Joining reigning champion Song from New South Wales is Belinda Ji. Ji, currently ranked seventh on the Australian female amateur rankings was a part of the NSW state team and finished second at this year’s Australian Master of the Amateurs behind WA’s Kirsten Rudgeley.
Fourteen year old Amelia Harris enters the field along with fellow Victorian state team member Molly Mclean. Both have previously won state championships, Harris claiming last year’s Victorian Junior Open, whilst Mclean won this year’s South Australian Junior Championship.
South Australia’s Cailtin Pierce could be the headline act. The current number one ranked female amateur in Australia will also bring a world ranking of 148 with her. She’s coming off a huge first eight months of 2022 where she has taken out the Tasmanian Open, South Australia’s Rene Erichsen Championship, was a Queen Sirkit team member and finished fourth at the LNGA Championship.
As it has since 2011, the 72-hole championship will be joined by the Senior and Mid-Amateur events.
Catch all the excitement and action from the 2022 Bowra and O’Dea Women’s Classic from Royal Fremantle here at golfwa.org.au or across the GolfWA social media channels.
