[ad_1]
Brett Coletta and Ashley Lau stroll away with the winner’s trophies on the 2024 VicOpen at Thirteenth Seashore.
Media launch
Victoria’s Brett Coletta got here out on high in a head-to-head duel with Sydney’s Jordan Zunic to assert the largest victory of his profession on the $420,000 Vic Open right now.
After beginning the ultimate spherical on the Seashore Course at thirteenth Seashore Golf Hyperlinks two pictures from the lead, Coletta fired a sensational 7-under-par 65 to assert his third Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia title and transfer to second place on this yr’s Order of Benefit, in touching distance of a DP World Tour card.
Within the girls’s Open, Malaysia’s Ashley Lau staved off defending champion Jiyai Shin by one stroke because of a closing spherical of 66, with the Korean’s 10-metre try for birdie on the ultimate gap to drive a playoff at 12-under agonisingly lipping out.
It’s 23-year-old Lau’s first win as knowledgeable after a stellar faculty profession on the College of Michigan.
Zunic, who ended up two pictures in arrears following a 67 to be -16 general, went birdie for birdie-for-birdie with Coletta with the duo combining for 11 birdies and an eagle general for the day.
Victorian Andrew Martin (68) charged late with 4 birdies in his final 5 holes to hitch Zunic in a share of second.
“This was an 18-hole duel. Happily it was my day right now,” stated the brand new males’s champion, who admitted he was nervous final evening pondering how about essential this Sunday was to his skilled profession which nearly took him to the PGA Tour 4 years in the past.
“That is fairly large. I’m fairly emotional inside.
“I do know I’m in a position to win out right here within the smaller occasions, the tier twos I suppose. The following stage is to essentially up your sport and win these larger ones.
“Hopefully I can proceed the development and roll the cube on the larger occasions, the PGA and the Australian Open.
“This was a kind of instances when it was my time I assume.”
Schooled at Hills Worldwide in Queensland in years 11 and 12, Lau has been in excellent kind on her return journey to Australia, together with taking pictures a 61 at Rosebud Nation Membership final week within the Webex Gamers Collection Victoria occasion, ultimately ending second to New Zealand’s Kazuma Kobori.
“I used to be very nervous. I’ve by no means been on this place earlier than,” Lau stated of her wait to see if she had claimed her first professional win.
“When the information got here in that I’d received, I began crying.
“I got here down right here simply to organize for the upcoming Epson Tour. This can be a large confidence increase.”
The at all times upbeat Shin, who was chasing her sixty fifth skilled win, vowed to return to the 18th inexperienced for a second attempt on the elusive 72nd gap putt this week whereas she stays on the Bellarine Peninsula for per week of coaching.
“Perhaps a little bit little bit of strain with the back-to-back, as a result of this event has by no means had a back-to-back winner,” she stated.
“I simply stored saying to myself ‘make new historical past, make new historical past’, however perhaps an excessive amount of strain.
“I’m nonetheless smiling as a result of I did all my finest.
“I like to play in Australia.”
Queensland’s Sarah Jane Smith (71) and Karis Davidson (73) had been the main Australians within the girls’s occasion in a share of fifth place on 7-under, 5 pictures behind Lau who solely turned skilled on the finish of 2022.
The low spherical of the day got here from Queensland’s Jed Morgan who discovered the spark he’s been ready some months to find, taking pictures an 8-under-par 64 to finish up at 14-under for the boys’s event, in a share of fourth with Travis Smyth (66).
“That spherical has been coming for a short time, most likely a little bit over six months,” Morgan stated.
“I’ve been engaged on some issues. That’s one spherical within the books.”
[ad_2]
Source link
