Tension was high during the 2015 Men’s Interstate Series final between Victoria and Queensland as Victoria looked to achieve a clean sweep. The conditions were picture perfect at Huntingdale Golf Club when the men tee’d off at 8:30am.
After a nail biting morning, Victoria completed the fairytale with a 5-3 victory over Queensland, and in doing so became the first state to win all four Australian Interstate Teams Series in the same year.
The Victorian women won their series yesterday at Royal Melbourne with the junior boys and girls’ teams winning their respective titles in South Australia two weeks prior.
“Nobody wanted to talk about it before today because we knew we still had a big task ahead of us.
“But we all, in the back of our mind, knew what it meant if we could win this today,” said number 1 player, Ryan Ruffels.
The men set themselves in good position through the front 9. David Micheluzzi, Frazer Droop, Brett Coletta, Lucas Herbert and Ryan Ruffels all held leads. Andrew Schonewille and Thomas Power-Horan were all square while Captain Ben Eccles would need to come from behind being 1-down at the turn.
David Micheluzzi secured the first point for the Vics. He had Jack Sullivan dormie 5 following a stand-out morning of golf and halved the 14th hole to finish 5&4. He was justifiably wrapt about the win, a considerable achievement in just his first Senior Interstate Series.
“It feels phenomenal, it’s awesome. The boys have played really well this week and I’m glad I got over the line today. Had a loss yesterday so I just wanted to go out and go real low.
“Got the momentum going through 7, I was fired up. Made 4 birdies and steady pars on the way in and was good enough to win 5&4,” said Micheluzzi.
Ryan Ruffels was also off to a flying start, missing an ace by just inches on the 3rd. His opponent, Taylor Macdonald could do little to turn play around as Ruffels went an astonishing 10 under par through 15 and took the match 4&3.
In the number 7 match-up Thomas Power-Horan was able to craft a 3-up lead and held strong to finish 3&2. Brett Coletta also closed out his match 3&1. The remaining matches provided two halves and two losses but that mattered little as the big V had already secured enough points with 4 individual victories.
Credit goes to men’s coach Marty Joyce and women’s coach Darren Cole, who also coached the winning junior girl’s team, for sparking stellar performances across the board. The depth of the Victorian men’s team was central to the win.
“Even the tight matches that went down the final few holes, we got the wins so it’s a real credit to the boys," said Captain, Ben Eccles.
“The bottom 4 of our team have really been rock solid. It’s been huge for us this week to really rely on the bottom 4 to get the wins and halves and they’ve played really well.”
The icing on the cake came as Ben Eccles was presented with his medal for going undefeated throughout the series, incuding his come-from-behind halved match today.
“You’ve got to play well against these guys and I’ve played well all week and went through the week undefeated so I’m pretty happy about it. But to get the win overall, that’s what we came here to do,” said Eccles.
“It’s a really proud day for me, but mostly the state – to do that for the first time ever is almost unbelievable.
“But we did it.”
Eccles and Grace Daniell from the women’s team are the only two Victorians to achieve this feat in 2015.
Click here for 2015 Men’s Interstate Series final highlights video