Jacqui Morgan joined an elite club today, winning her second Australian Women’s Senior Amateur crown.
Morgan, of Sydney, began well and was never really challenged, downing local hope Helen Pascoe 6&4 at the Ballarat Golf Club in western Victoria.
It is Morgan’s second national championship after she was equally impressive in winning the 2012 final in Canberra 4&2.
The victory capped an incredible recent run by her home club, Monash in Sydney’s northern suburbs, with newly minted professional Cameron Davis winning low individual honours in Australia’s triumph at the men’s World Amateur Teams Championship.
Morgan was delighted with her victory, praising the role her New South Wales teammates had played on the road.
“This is a great event to win and a huge honour,” she said.
“The NSW crew had such an enjoyable week … and I played awesome,” she said before a big giggle.
Morgan took the early lead by winning the second hole and the battle raged through another frigid early morning until the seventh hole when she went 2-up.
But Pascoe’s win on the eighth hole would be as close as the Buninyong ace would get.
It seemed to spark Morgan into action and she stormed clear with consecutive wins from the 9th-11th holes to go 4-up.
The 12th was squared, but another win on the 13th for Morgan put the match on the brink.
Fittingly, it was a superb 7-recovery shot from 188m on the 14th that effectively put the match out of reach and soon afterwards the hole and match were conceded.
Other winners on a big day of finals were Tasmanian Tammy Hall, of Prospect Vale Golf Club, in the new age veterans division; West Australian pair Lyn Bennett, of Gosnells, and Mardi Dungey, of Mt Lawley, in the veterans and super veterans divisions, respectively; and Sydney’s Brenda Chalmers, of Elanora, in the super veterans plus division.
The state teams title was won by host Victoria on a total of 324 with the team of Pascoe, Deborah Rix and Heather Harley successful by a bare two strokes over NSW with Queensland another three back in third.