Shelly Shin can now add to her string of wins the 2014 Ladies Riversdale Cup Champion. Steeped in tradition, the106 year old event is one of the oldest Amateur events in the world. Both men and women played concurrently for the respective Men&aposs and Ladies Riversdale Cup held from 6-9 March at the Riversdale Golf Club, Mt Waverley, VIC. In the Ladies Riversdale Cup, a superb field, including last year s Champion Grace Lennon and current number two ranked amateur in the world (formerly number one) Su Oh ascended on Riversdale. Fifteen year old NSW phenom Shelly Shin led the tournament wire to wire to win by 15 strokes from the quality field. Fuelled by recently missing selection in the Australian Team for The Queen Sirikit Cup, Shelly showed her huge potential finishing the only player under par in challenging windy conditions in Melbourne. She commented, I have been playing well, and just tried to play every shot as well as I could without thinking of where I was and what others were doing. It really worked.” Other NSW players that performed well included Lizzie Elmassian (T12) and Eliza Huff (23). To top off her win, Shelly has just been invited to represent Australia in the Queen Sirikit Cup in Malaysia, from April 9-11, due to the withdrawal of Minjee Lee and Su Oh who received a start in the Kraft Nabisco Championships. The Men&aposs Riversdale Cup event had a stellar field with all National Squad members vying for the trophy, along with a very strong NSW contingent. Eleven NSW players made the cut of four over par. Jordan Zunic eagled the last hole, to think he had made it on the number but ended up missing by one shot. Jarrod Freeman shot the &aposround of the tournament&apos in round two with a seven under par 65 to leave him in second place, but six behind the leader Todd Sinnott of Victoria. National Squad Member and NSW number one player, Cameron Davis headed into the weekend very confident on two under par, after some solid work the week prior. The final group on Sunday featured Jarrod Freeman at six under, with 15 year old National squad member and son of the famous tennis player Ray Ruffles, Ryan Ruffles, both four behind Todd Sinnott at ten under. The final day saw Sinnott lose his lead to Ruffles through a front nine of four over. Jarrod could not put any pressure on with a three over outward nine holes. The lead changed many times on the back nine, before a double bogey on the 16th by Sinnott handed the tournament to the 15 year old Ruffles by a single shot. Jarrod Freeman finished a credible third place on five under, only three behind. Zac Mullins of The Australian Golf Club finished ninth, while recent Concord Cup Winner Brayden Peterson of Monash finished with three rounds of 71 to finish fifteenth. With NSW Men’sState Squad Selections being announced this weekend at the Monash Masters, these results will certainly help in their selection chances. For full results and information visit the Riversdale Cup website.
Author: Dean Kinney, National Coach - NSW