Courtesy: Golf Victoria Victoria&aposs Jack Wilson defeated Tasmanian Ryan McCarthy 3&2 to win the Victorian Amateur Championship at Woodlands Golf Club. Wilson was the first to flinch after flying the second green with a wedge and then failing to get up and down. He quickly struck back with a very good approach to the 3rd and holed the 3 metre putt for a birdie to square the match. Both players came up just short of the green on the Par 4 4th with Wilson playing the better chip shot resulting in another birdie and a 1 hole lead. Both players halved the par 3, 5th and then hit terrible drives up the 6th into the rough down the left side. McCarthy made the better recovery, hitting his 3rd shot to a metre and converting the birdie putt thus returning the match to square. Wilson struck back immediately with a beautiful 9 iron to a metre on the 7th, holed the putt and went back to 1 up. A great sand save on the 8th was good enough to win the hole after McCarthy was forced to stand half in the bunker to play his second shot and then lipped his par putt out. Wilson went to 2 up. Both players proceeded to par the 9th leaving Wilson 2up at the turn. The 10th saw McCarthy hit a superb drive to leave him 120m to the pin. Wilson was slightly wayward in the light rough on the right side of the fairway however his recovery shot to the green was perfect and he was left with a 3m putt for birdie, whilst McCarthy s approach was a little strong and he ended up in the swale at the back of the green. His putt to the pin was soft and Wilson moved ahead another hole. Both players hit terrific drives to the Par 3 11th with Wilson 3m from the pin and McCarthy 7m. McCarthy s putt sat on the lip then Wilson sank his birdie putt to move 4 ahead. Wilson approach to 12 was a little strong whilst McCarthy s was perfect to 3m. McCarthy took the hole to fight back to 3 down. The 13th squared, Wilson again won the 14th to move back to 4 ahead. The next 2 holes belonged to McCarthy with par and birdie respectively the match 2 up to Wilson who then proceeded to eagle the 18th and move to 3 up for the first 18 holes. McCarthy found trouble left off the tee on the 1st hole of the next 18 and gave Wilson a 4 hole lead after the 19th hole of the match. A strong birdie on 20th, squared hole on 21st and another strong par on the 22nd hole saw the match become tighter with Wilson holding a 2 hole advantage. The next few holes were still tight but Wilson managed to maintain the upper hand and took the 23rd par 3 with a par and proceeded to birdie the 25th par 4 to move back to 4 ahead. Getting one back with a strong par on the 26th par 3, McCarthy conceded this win on the next hole with a lost ball Wilson back to 4 up at the turn for the last 9 holes. The 28th and 29th were halved then an unexpected 3 putt from Wilson on the 30th saw his lead reduced to 3 holes. On the 31st both players smashed drivers with McCarthy finishing in trouble down the right and Wilson only 10m from the front of the green. McCarthy putted his third from off the green to a metre and looked a chance to get away with a half when Wilson s chipped propped and sat on the fringe of the green. Wilson calmly proceeded to knock the putt in for birdie from around 8m to go back to 4 up. The 32 hole was halved with pars and Mccarthy now found himself dormie 4 down to Wilson. Not lying down for a moment McCarthy fought back on the 33rd hole, winning with a Par 5, the match back to Dormie 3 in favour of Wilson. Both players split the middle of the fairway on the 34th hole and McCarthy playing first struck a beautiful 7 iron at the flag only to see his ball roll off the back of the green. Wilson took advantage of this to hit a lovely 8 iron in to the heart of the green. McCarthy almost holed his putt from off the green and was forced to stand and wait while Wilson proceeded to roll his 8m putt up next to the hole and take the title 3 holes up with 2 to play. Whilst Wilson had lead the match most of the day McCarthy had forced him to stay sharp at all times and the match was played in great spirits.