Picking up where she left off in the United States, red-hot Sue Wooster is the early leader of the Australian Women’s Senior Amateur Championship.
Wooster, who won twice in North America this northern summer and was also runner-up at the recent US Senior Women’s Amateur, carded an even-par 74 at the picturesque Sandy Creek Golf Club in South Australia’s beautiful Barossa Valley.
That gives the Victorian the inside running to be medallist tomorrow, with a three-shot lead at the halfway mark of the stroke play qualifying phase.
Despite winds lifting through the round, Wooster combined two birdies with just two bogeys to sit three clear of dual champion Jacqui Morgan, with her fellow New South Welshwoman Kim Burke a shot further back at four over.
“I played steadily, the course is quite tight off the tee and I drove the ball well,” Wooster said after her round.
“I missed a few putts on the greens which are quite small and slick … it’s quite testing around the greens overall.”
Defending champion Robyn Boniface, of New Zealand, sits in a logjam at T7 at 10 over alongside fellow previous winners Sylvia Donohoe, Sharon Dawson and former American Robyn Puckett, now based at Noosa Springs on the Sunshine Coast.
While Devonport’s Lue Proud didn’t have the greatest round of her life, she certainly provided the day one highlight with a spectacular hole-in-one on the 13th.
Proud, who used a 7-wood, said she didn’t see the ball go in, but was thrilled when she checked to see her first competition ace at the bottom of the cup.