Mullard, Clarke snare Mid-Amateur Crowns

Louise Mullard and Dale Clarke show off their respective Australian Mid Amateur trophies in South Australia.

Louise Mullard and Dale Clarke are the respective Australian Mid Amateur champions after a fascinating last day in South Australia.

Mullard, a member at Morriset Country Club on the southern edge of Newcastle, continued her stranglehold on the ladies title and successfully defended her 2017 crown with a runaway 22-battle victory at the Vines Golf Club in Reynella, south of Adelaide.

But Mullard was in her last year of eligibility, while she was happy with her title defense, not happy with her closing 81, still the best score of the day making them two but far away from Robyn Callaghan from Queensland.

"I struggled around the greens on day three," Mullard admitted.

"But I was very happy with how I played the first two days.

"Last year was the first year that I played, so winning two years in a row was special."

The men's event was not so well-cut and dry with Clarke, from the Sherwood Park Golf Club in New Zealand, who came from behind to win with two strokes, despite a closing bogey.

Clarke had loaded the field with three birdies from the 13th to the 16th after a double bogey on the 12th had threatened to ruin his otherwise fine round

But when his blocked ride the last battle cost him a new blow, the local member Tony Nobbs suddenly had the chance to enforce a play-off if he could birdie the closing par four.

Pondering, however, Nobbs – despite the fact that he took off the t-shirt for safety – made a bogeyman on the 18th for the third consecutive day, giving Clarke the crown after his equal tournament best one-by-a-row 71 who won him two left in total.

"I hit it well and pulled it back to make bogey – it could have been much worse," said Clarke, who spent a lot of time in Australia before returning to NZ about full time about 18 months ago.

"Day two was pretty awful and I did not dig too many holes, because the greens were difficult there.

"But I was pretty happy today."

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