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The battle for the 2010 South Island Strokeplay proved a tight affair with national representative Zoe Brake producing a stunning birdie on the final hole to edge out 2008 winner Caroline Bon and Christchurch’s Sunwoo Bea by one shot.
Zoe with her Winner's Medal
Brake, the current New Zealand Strokeplay champion, shared the lead going down the final hole with Bea, already in the clubhouse on three-under, and Bon who had dropped the outright lead with a bogey at the 16th.
The Whakatane player smashed her drive down the last home and hit her approach to 1.5m and made the clutch putt for victory after Bon’s 6m effort slid past.
The storms from Saturday gave way to mostly fine and good conditions for the final round today.
Brake, who started with two bogeys in the first nine, made birdies at 12, 14 and 18 for her one-under 73 for her final tally of four-under par 292.
Overnight leader Bon also dropped two shots early but went into the outright lead with a birdie on the 11th before dropping a shot on the 16th, while Bea fired a one-under 73 today with three birdies and two dropped shots.
Nelson’s Lisa Wright continued her excellent form to finish in a share of fourth place on two-under with Srixon Academy player Emily Perry, who fired the low round five-under 69 today to finish one shot ahead of North Island champion Lydia Ko (igolf).
“I was still not on song with my game and struggled on the greens. It took me until the 12th make a putt,” Zoe said. “After that I made a couple more putts which really helped.”
One of those was a crucial 7m par save on the 17th after she hit her approach into the bunker, along with the clutch birdie on the last.
“If you don’t play aggressive golf you don’t win, so I went for it with my approach on the alst and it came off.
“I definitely wanted to make birdie on the last and knew I needed it to win it then and not go to a playoff.”
Brake will spend the next week working with the crew at igolf ahead of the Pegasus New Zealand Women’s Open in Christchurch in two weeks.
New Zealand representative Andrew Stewart dominated to take out the South Island Amateur Golf Championship in Dunedin for the first time.
The Tauranga player, the only one to score all four rounds in red figures, fired a final round two-under 69 to finish on 13-under par 271 at St Clair Golf Club.
Stewart won by four shots from Auckland’s Ben Wallace, who rushed home with a final round 66 to move to nine-under.
New Zealand representative Daniel Pearce (Hastings) fired a four-under 67 to finish in third place on eight-under, one shot ahead of igolf’s Kevin Budden and Christchurch teenager Keelan Kilpatrick.
Stewart’s victory, his first major national title, was earned with his brilliant four-under 67 in the wet and windy conditions on Saturday.
He dropped one shot early today but made three birdies to hold a comfortable advantage.
“I just played to the conditions and played the course,” Stewart said. “I hit a lot of three-woods off the tee and just kept the ball in play. That was the key.
“I’ve been working hard on my game and I’m rapt to have won the title.”
He returns to Tauranga to contest the grant Clements Memorial this weekend and his big aims include the New Zealand Amateur in April.
Leading scores round 3 South Island Championship, St Clair GC par 71:
271 Andrew Stewart (Omokoroa) 66 69 67 69
275 Ben Wallace (Royal Auckland) 72 66 71 66
276 Daniel Pearce (Hastings) 71 67 71 66
277 Kevin Budden (igolf) 68 72 69 68, Keelan Kilpatrick (Russley) 67 70 72 68
279 Tom Brockelsby (Royal Wellington) 67 66 72 74, Kieran Muir (Omokoroa) 70 68 73 68, Brent McEwan (St Clair) 70 71 70 68
280 Mark O’Malley (Ashburton) 68 66 76 70, Ryan Fox (Royal Auckland) 71 65 75 69
281 Sean Riordan (Takaka) 70 68 71 72, Ben Taylor (Omokoroa) 73 68 71 69, Matt Perry (Hamilton) 71 69 71 68, Ben Campbell (Masterton) 76 65 75 65
282 James Hamilton (Omanu) 71 65 75 71, Blair Riordan (Takaka) 69 66 77 70, Owen Burgess (Russley) 71 71 71 69
283 Liam Balneaves (Invercargill) 71 70 69 73, Harry Bateman (Russley) 75 66 72 70
284 Vaughan McCall (Gore) 66 70 72 76
Women, par 74:
292 Zoe Brake (igolf) 70 72 77 73
293 Caroline Bon (Northland) 70 70 77 76, Sunwoo Bea (Harewood) 75 69 76 73
294 Lisa Wright (Nelson) 70 74 75 75, Emily Perry (Lochiel) 74 74 77 69
295 Lydia Ko (igolf) 74 74 77 70
300 Rebekah Brownlee (Gulf Harbour) 72 74 79 75, Liv Cheng (Manukau) 72 71 83 74, Catherine Knight (Ashburton) 76 72 79 73, Faye Nickson (Peninsula) 79 73 75 73
For Total scores Click Here
