Golf Vic Vol 60 No 2 2019

An international and an interstater proved triumphant in the Riversdale Cup and the course, as ever, won rave reviews. MARTIN BLAKE reports. In the women’s Riversdale Cup, it was a valedictory march up the 18th for Japan’s teenaged wunderkind Yuna Nishimura, surely a star of the future and a three-shot winner for the biggest triumph of her short career. But on the men’s side, it was anything but the proverbial walk in the park. It came down to the finest of lines for 23-year-old Chris Crabtree, a Queenslander only now realising his full potential. The 282-metre par-four 18th at Riversdale is driveable for the modern-day elite amateur and Crabtree, tied for the lead with Victoria’s Blake Collyer as they stood on the 72nd tee, went for it. So did Collyer … and they both finished left and long, behind the green. Crabtree, a latecomer who preferred soccer to golf as a boy, deployed his 60-degree wedge with precision from the short grass over near the 10th fairway and hit it to just two metres under the hole. After Collyer, with an inferior lie in the rough, wedged to seven metres and left his birdie putt up the hill a fraction short, the Queenslander had been offered the greatest gift of his golfing life. He was not about to let it pass, and his putt for the win dropped in for the boy from Little Mountain on the Sunshine Coast. “I just thought: ‘Leave yourself an uphill putt’,’’ he said. “I had six feet, curving a lot right-to- left, maybe a cup-and-a-half (of break). I said to myself; ‘You’ve holed a million of these in your life. Just keep your head down and hear the ball go in’. The juices were flowing on that one, I can tell you.’’ Crabtree is scarcely the standard elite amateur at the mature age of 23, with two club championships at Greg Norman’s Pelican Waters but not much else to show for his diligence. But there are reasons for his tardiness. Born in England and living in the UK with his parents until they emigrated when he was 10, he was steeped in football culture. “It’s a religion,” he said after his win. “I played it for the first four years I was over here. Then I started playing golf. Dad played and you just tagged along. Eventually I had to make a decision, and it was golf.” Crabtree shot 17-under to win by a shot from Collyer and another Metropolitan boy, Aiden Didone, who had taken the lead into the final round. Both the locals had good chances; Collyer made his challenge with a birdie from in close at the par-five 15th but his failure to get up-and-down at the last saw the opportunity slide by. Ultimately the 22-year-old Victorian Institute of Sport player fell short but was less than bitter. “I was four-over for my first nine holes of the tournament, so to be where I am now, I was happy,’’ he said. “I went bogey-free today and I felt like I was playing really well. To get back here, I was happy with the fight.’’ Didone, 21, capitalised all week on his history as a former Riversdale member with his knowledge of the correct lines off the tee and the breaks on greens that run at 13 on the stimpmeter. But a double bogey from the right trap with a three-putt at the par-three 14th hole on the final day cost him dearly. In the end, his three birdies coming in, including one from the right trees at the 18th, gave him a sliver of a chance of reaching a playoff until Crabtree closed it out. “It was a good experience,’’ said Didone, who is aiming to break into the state amateur team and the VIS squad. “I felt as though if I kept doing what I was doing, then I’d be pretty close at the end. I’ve never been that close and played in front of that many people. I was (nervous), I’m not going to lie, but I was really happy with how I stuck at it.” Crabtree is the thoroughly modern golfer with his athletic build and length off the tee, and he ignited his final round with a six-iron shot to the shadow of the flag at the par- five sixth hole for an eagle. From there, he birdied four holes on the bounce from the eighth to get out to a two-shot lead. He had his moments beyond that, missing a short birdie putt at the 12th and then having to scramble a five from the trees down the right of the par-five 13th. “I said to my caddie, ‘that’s the best par I’ve made in my life’,’’ he said. Yuna Nishimura pulled her own clubs around Riversdale. Chris Crabtree employed his wedges to good effect. 10 Golf Victoria