/> Jo Charlton (Metropolitan Golf Club) – Rene Erichsen Salver Champion at Royal Adelaide GC
Victorian, Jo Charlton has claimed her first national ranking event, by taking out the South Australian Rene Erichsen Salver (partnered by the W Group) by five strokes after carding a final round four-under 69.
Finishing at two-under, Charlton was the only player in the field to finish under par.
With rounds of 72-77-72-69 Charlton finished five ahead of Glenelg’s Jenny lee, who posted a three-over final round of 76.
“It was one of those days, you hope to have one of those days every time you get out on the golf course, but more often it’s not the case, but I’ll certainly take it. It basically fell together for me today.”
Charlton started the day two behind Lee, but made three birdies on the front nine, to reduce the margin to one.
Charlton then went on a birdie run, from holes 10 through 12 to move to 4-under, while Lee dropped both the 10th and 12th to be at even par.
“There were two shot swings on a couple of holes” Charlton said.
Charlton handled the conditions better than her rivals today, with the blowy conditions not fazing the 25 year old, who mixes her golf with part-time employment at Golf Victoria.
“It’s been a little windy every day, maybe a fraction stronger today and a little more challenging. The greens where definitely a lot harder today and the ball was reacting differently hitting into the pins and they were rolling a lot quicker too.”
With five straight pars to close, Charlton was rock solid down the stretch to go one better than her runner up finish in 2014.
“I’d be lying if I said the nerves weren’t kicking in, they probably kicked in with eight to play. I got a couple of birdies which sort of settled it a little bit, but I decided to make it interesting and threw a double in on the 13th, so I would be lying to say there were no nerves”.
“I set myself a really basic goal this week, to stick to my pre shot routine. That was all I wanted to do and if I did that over every shot, I was going to leave the event happy, regardless of the result. I felt like I did that pretty well, the win is a bit of a bonus really”.
Charlton who has had a solid run of tournaments in recent months has just been named Victorian Women’s Captain again for the Interstate Series.
“That’s the end of my summer, until I go play the interstate series at Royal Melbourne, then I will be off to the UK and potentially the US for our winter, and hopefully play some good golf over there too, fingers crossed.”
Finishing runner up in the Rene Erichsen was Jenny Lee at (3-over) after posting rounds 70-74-75-76 (295). Third a further three strokes back was Caitlin Roberts from The Grange, 76-70-74-78 (298).