(25 January 2010 – Kangaroo Valley, NSW)
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After arriving in Australia on Saturday morning, England&aposs Laura Davies has overcome any affects of jetlag to take victory at the Kangaroo Valley Resort ALPG Classic. Her round of 3-under par 68 was good enough to take the title by one shot from Australian young guns Sarah-Jane Smith and Sarah Oh. West Australian Bree Turnbull finished alone in 4th place a shot further back on 1-under par 70.
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Davies round in the Corporate Day on Sunday was her first in 6 weeks, and by all accounts hit the driver her usual long and straight. However, her first tee shot today ended up 80 metres left on the 4th fairway. Her caddy and her guessed the yardage and made a good par to get her round off to a solid start. She proceeded to play the front nine in 1-under par with birdies on the third and 9th holes but added a bogey on the 8th.
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She quickly moved to 3-under par with birdies at the 10th and 11th holes before giving one back on the par-3 12th. From there she played “pretty solid” with five straight pars until she capped off her round with the winning birdie on the par-5 18th. After her round she said, “I played pretty well. I hit three bad shots all day and holed a few nice putts. It’s a good start to my trip down here.”
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Davies, a long time supporter of Australian golf was inducted as an Honorary Member of Australian Ladies Professional Golf last year. She has now completed most of the Pro-Am tournaments on the ALPG Tour having played at Mollymook, Catalina, Bermagui, Bonnie Doon, Moss Vale, Branxton and now Kangaroo Valley. It was her third Pro-am victory in Australia and her tenth tournament victory overall in this country which includes three Masters and two Women’s Australian Open titles.
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Sarah Oh eagled her last hole (the 9th) to reach the 2-under mark and leapfrog a host of players to finish second. Smith came home with an even better finish to tie Oh, finishing birdie, par, eagle to move into the tie for second.
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The Club Car Series race saw a new leader emerge with Sarah Kemp finishing in a tie for 5th picking up 240 points to move to 1540 points, 70 in front of Tamara Beckett with Rachel Bailey rounding out the Top-3 with 1070 points. The bonus pool race hots up with the next two events being worth one a half times the points.
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Photo by Paul Melville – Laura Davies
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