Port Lincoln 20-year-old Jack Thompson from The Grange Golf Club has won the 110th staging of Victoria’s prestigious national ranking event the Riversdale Cup.
Thompson won by five strokes finishing at 14-under with rounds of 69-64-68-73.
Dominant from the outset, Thompson made 20 birdies and eagle the first three rounds and held a four-stroke lead over Royal Melbourne’s Will Heffernan, heading into the final round.
After a solid third placing at the Avondale Amateur, Thompson was confident of another strong showing over 72 holes.
“I had a good finish at Avondale and prior to that at NT, which gave me a lot of confidence and self believe heading into the event. I even joked around with my mates and said I think I’m going to win”. Thompson said.
“To other people the win is a bit out of nowhere, but it’s something I was really determined to do.”
“In round one, I chipped in for eagle on the 8th which got me to 2-under. I wasn’t hitting it that well but I was scoring well and finished three-under.
“I had a chat to Adrian (Wickstein SA HP Director) after the round and he said specifically there is no reason why I can’t have 7-under and get to 10 and funnily enough I actually had 8-under”.
“During the second round for sure, when I was in the led, was when I thought I was really in with a chance and a win would be a real possibility.
In round four, Thompson opened with 11 straight pars, then made double on 12 after a wayward drive which reduced his lead to three.
“For a split second I thought that would cost me. In three other tournaments where I was a chance of winning, I always doubled a hole, where I either got a bad break, a flier, or like in NT my ball got stuck in a rock wall which cost me and I just thought that double was going to be the same story”.
“So on the next tee I was a bit more deliberate going into the hole, I just thought to myself it’s okay you’ve still got three shots, so just slow it down a little bit. I ended up hitting a really good drive which set me up for an easy birdie and then I ended up playing solid from then on, making par.”
Thompson sunk a short par putt to win the title, a well-deserved result for the 20-year-old.
“I still can’t believe it to be honest with you, I thought I was a real chance to win, but to actually go out and do it.
“It was one of the most stressful rounds of golf I have ever played, with that sort of pressure, so it was just a wave of relief when it went in.
“Not so much shock, but I was thinking is this real, did I actually do this? And then, from then on, having all the people coming up to me saying well done, it made me realise that it actually happened.”
Images and video courtesy of Snapeture Sports 2018