Golf Vic Vol 60 No 1

Pondering a potential disastrous defeat from an apparently unassailable position an hour earlier, the Irishman pulled a hybrid club from his bag and tried to hack it up towards the green. Watching this fateful club selection from the fairway, a seasoned professional muttered: “That’s got ‘smother’ written all over it.” The shot veered hard left and up on to the driveway beside the clubhouse, in bounds but leaving him no way of stopping his wedge shot on the green. Purcell said later he was mindful of Barbieri’s position, centre-fairway and in range of the green for two. “I was thinking of where he was and he had a strong chance of making four,’’ he said. “For me to lay up I’d have needed an eight iron or even a wedge, so thought I’d have a chop at it and it might get up near the green. But it didn’t work.’’ Ultimately, he conceded the hole to Barbieri and it was all square and headed to extra holes. Across they marched to the first tee, and here it was Barbieri who faltered. With the pin cut left on the right-to- left dogleg par-four and deep bunkers guarding the left, the prudent play was to aim for the centre of the green and let the southerly breeze drift the ball in toward the flag. Certainly that is what Purcell did, avoiding the dreaded short-side. But Barbieri had gone at that tricky pin in regulation play a few hours earlier, making birdie. He gambled again, and lost. His gap wedge from 120 metres drifted left, cleared the traps but wound up on a steep embankment, left and long. “I wanted to let it ride the wind, but I started it further left than I wanted, and the wind just took it,’’ he said later. From there, he could only make bogey, his par-saver putt drifting right of the hole, and Purcell calmly lagged his birdie putt up close, conceded a par for the win. “After I saw Nathan pull it left, the centre of the green was where I needed to go,’’ he said. “When he hit his chip, I thought: ‘Make four, make him hole it’.’’ Purcell is the first-ever Irishman to win the Australian Amateur. His only previous victory was the South of Ireland title in 2016 but it will unlikely be his last. With his brother Gary on the bag, he was formidable all week at Spring Valley and Woodlands (which incidentally were preened and magnificent for the occasion). For the largely unheralded Barbieri, it was a watershed week regardless of the result and while the waterworks flowed afterward, he was able to find some perspective. It was by far the best-ever result for the boy who learned his golf at Ryde-Parramatta Golf Club and then North Ryde Golf Club, where he still works in the pro shop. “It’s been unbelievable,’’ he said. “I’m disappointed but I played my heart out this week,’’ he said. “I’ve definitely shown myself that I can compete with anyone.’’ The women’s final was an all-international affair after the last-standing Australian, Stephanie Bunque, was knocked out in the semi-finals. The Japanese 15-year-old Tsubasa Kajitani was the surprise packet with her long tee balls generated from a superbly rhythmic swing. But she was overwhelmed in the end by 16-year-old Hong, another graduate of the quite incredible Korean talent factory for women out of Seoul. Hong led for most of the match and went three-up through 33 holes with a beautiful wedge in tight at the par-five 15th followed by a drilled birdie putt, while Kajitani, who had actually hit it closer, missed her chance. Then at the 16th, after Hong’s short iron from the rough skated off the back of the green and into the rough, leaving her with a steep bank to negotiate and no room between the fringe and the cup, the moment of the women’s final arrived. The Korean felt she was in trouble. “I just thought ‘bogey is okay’,” she said. “It was so hard, and it was my first time playing on these tough greens.” Hong decided to trust her father’s notion of a hard chip into the bank, taking the momentum away from the ball. She executed it perfectly. “I just played it and I thought it was very big, but it just went in the hole.’’ Kajitani was on the green with a long birdie putt to come but that was the match, then and there. Hong won 4&3 for her first national title. Her father Tae-Sik, who said he regretted giving the professional game away at 20 to study in America, burst into tears. It was that kind of day at Woodlands. FOOTNOTE: Amy Hong would go on to win the trophy for leading amateur in the Vic Open with scores of 68, 72, 79. Despite missing the final cut, no other amateur could match her two-over total after three rounds. Runners-up Nathan Barbieri and Tsubasa Kajitani in action during the final. Golf Victoria 21