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If you’re looking for a favourite heading into next week’s Women’s Interstate Series at Royal Hobart Golf Club, look no further than defending champions New South Wales.
The Blues will have five of last year’s six winning women on the plane to Tasmania on Sunday morning and have added Australia’s top-ranked female amateur, World No. 74 Grace Kim.
“I’m pretty confident to say our team has a good chance of winning,” says Kim.
“Australia’s got a lot of good female and male amateur golfers so you never know until the end.”
As if they needed any more motivation in their quest for back-to-back crowns, the Blues will hoping to deliver Kim her first #IntSeries crown after she was forced to miss last year’s triumph for the Queen Sirikit Cup.
The 18-year-old was a part of the 2017 side that went down to Victoria in dramatic style, adding more fuel to the fire for Kim next week.
“It was a bit unfortunate I couldn’t participate last year but seeing the girls win, even without me, it shows how strong we are as a team so we’re hoping for the best!” says Kim.
“I hope we can do the double! The boys are really strong too, anything can happen but I can confidently say we’ve got a good chance in the men’s section as well.”
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With a win in Thursday’s final, NSW will become the first back-to-back women’s champions since Western Australia in 2012.
That star-studded line-up boasted Minjee Lee, Hannah Green & Whitney Hillier – that trio living proof that the #IntSeries is a breeding ground for the next generation of Australian stars and strong friendships.
“We love it, we always look forward for this time of the year,” says Kim.
“It’s sort of a bonus to win a match. We’re all good friends in the end and it’s all in good fun.”
In the men’s, the Blues will have their hands full if they are to do their part in achieving a NSW clean sweep.
Arch-rivals Victoria are eyeing off a third straight #IntSeries triumph and an incredible fifth title in the last six years.
A win for the Vics would be the first three-peat in since 2007, an achievement all other states will be desperate to avoid.
Re-live NSW's dominant display in the 2018 #IntSeries final:
Lukas Michel, Blake Collyer, Matias Sanchez and Kyle Michel have played in both of Victoria’s last two wins and will be looking to add a third, along with Darcy Brereton who debuted in Adelaide last year.
Only four of the Queensland men’s team that went down in last year’s final are back in 2018 after half the team took the pro plunge. The returning quartet heading to Tasmania are Louis Dobbelaar, Jed Morgan, Dylan Gardner and Lawry Flynn.
And Team WA have only three players with #IntSeries experience in 2019 with Haydn Barron, Connor Fewkes and Josh Greer hoping to deliver the sandgropers their first crown since 1999.
The #IntSeries format sees each state play five matches for the women and seven for the men against every other state.
The women’s final will be on Thursday, May 9, with the men’s decider the following afternoon. All six women and eight men tee it up in the finals.