Women’s NSW Open 2015

The Bing Lee/Fujitsu General Women’s NSW Open 2015 was held this week at the Oatlands Golf Club in New South Wales, Australia. The 5463 yard course displayed itself well for this much enjoyed event.

After a good solid 2 days of golf, the leaderboard was chock-a-block full of stars from the Australian Ladies Professional Golf (ALPG) and Ladies European Tour (LET). A smorgasbord of players from across the world, sharpening their tools and honing there skills ‘down under’ in Australia today, Sunday, set up another exciting final day as the players duelled and stepped forward and challenged each other until the last player stood standing.

Christine Wolf from Austria had the round of the day, not faltering once. She carded an incredible -8. An impressive -4 on the front and a -4 the back, birdying all but 1 of the par 5’s.

Holly Clyburn, overnight leader, wracked up a a couple of birdies early and set the pace. She dropped a shot on the par4, 7th before rescuing her score with another couple of birdies to go out in 33. Clyburn, currently ranked 14th on the Ladies European Tour Order of Merit, finished strongly on the rankings last year for a well earned 6th place looked strong here this week.

Minus ten became the score to fight for and before long, 5 players sat atop of the board in a stalemate, -10’s all round. Wolf, Clyburn (Eng), Vikki Laing (Sco), Fabienne In Albon (Swi) and Rebecca Artis (Aust) had put on a golfing display and held their places well into the event.

Laing sparkled through the front 9 tying 5 birdies together to go out in 31 but stumbled at 11 where she dropped a shot. With plenty of course left to play, Laing managed a birdie on 12 to take her to an equal lead of -10 but couldn’t get the ball to drop for another birdie. She waited with others in the clubhouse to see if a play-off would be the order of the day.

Rebecca Artis

Credit: Tristan Jones/LET

Rebecca Artis didn’t falter in her round and found a spring in her step with an eagle at the par 5, 6th hole. Artis was consistently good and birdied the 13th that had stolen a shot from her on Saturday. With that revenge in her pocket and confidence building, Artis could only manage pars for the next 5 holes and sat equal clubhouse leader at -10.

In-Albon who started the day at -7 worked hard for her 3 birdies of the round and sat co-clubhouse leader at -10.

With only a shot back, another round that was coming together very well, saw Stacey Keating right in the mix when she also eagled the par 5, 6th hole. After the turn, Keating made back to back birdies. She was ‘back in town’, showing the steely determination that we are used to seeing in Keating. The ball clunked into the hole again for birdie at 17 and saw her 1 shot off the pace. Sadly, things didn’t go her way on 18 as the par 3 took a shot back. Keating carded a -6 round to rocket her up to -8 for the event.

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Nikki Garret (Aus) was also ‘looking the goods’ making it to -10 in the middle of her round. The 10th and 11th hole that had captured her ball on day one was at it again and Garrett fell back to -8. On the par 5,13th hole, she stood tall again making a much needed birdie and had time on her side to climb back into contention. Like many of the other players this round, Garrett wasn’t able to capitalise her birdie chances and parred the next 4 holes to finish her event with a -9 and a share of 6th place.

Holly Clyburn

Credit: LET

Meanwhile, in the last group was Holly Clyburn who had managed to get her score to -12 on the front 9 and looked to be coasting her way to a win. The 384 yard par 4, 10th hole defied her on Saturday’s round stood in Clyburn’s way again today as she dropped a shot. She stumbled back into the pack on the par 3, 12th hole.

With 6 holes left to play, there were 5 players sitting at -10 and Clyburn had to dig deep to find her strength. With her reserves all but used up, a burst of adrenalin had to be calmed as she birdied the 14th hole and again became outright leader. Clyburn clung on tight and worked hard for her pars as she managed her way to 18.

With a 1 shot lead and name at the top of the leaderboard at -11, Holly Clyburn became the Bing Lee/Fujitsu General Women’s NSW Open winner for 2015. She was smiling yesterday after her second round 66 but I imagine that infectious smile will be bigger today.

See how the scores unfolded here ALPG

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