Vic Am: Hinson-Tolchard and Lautee clinch titles
Maddison Hinson-Tolchard and Andre Lautee
Two new wave stars were crowned when 16-year-old Maddison Hinson-Tolchard from Perth and Andre Lautee from Kingston Heath stepped on the legendary winners list of the Victorian Amateur Championship in Huntingdale.
Hinson-Tolchard is one of the youngest winners ever of the 124-year-old championship, her victory embellished the title of the Australian girls she had won at Royal Perth earlier this year. In a completely Western Australian women's finale she took five consecutive birdies from the sixth to the tenth hole on the second 18 of the 36-hole final to blow away the 17-year-old Kirsten Rudgeley.
Eventually she won five and four with another long birdie putt rolling in at the 32nd hole.
Lautee, 19, is the reigning club champion at Kingston Heath and has also won a club championship in Rosanna in the northeast of Melbourne. Not yet part of the Elite program of the Victorian Institute of Sport, he has a bullet next to his name.
He defeated VIS stockbroker and state team player Kyle Michel 2 & 1 in the final and closed the game on the 17th green with a bogey from the trees on the right.
With Michel's ball in the trees too, Lautee had to land sideways on the adjacent 18th fairway and play his third shot over the trees to get himself out of trouble.
That shot on the back of the green effectively won the title for him.
"I could not see the flag, so my caddy had to run up to get the distance," he said.
"It ended about 200 meters above the trees and in the wind, I struck a three iron ankle to the back of the green, and it put me in a good position to go up and down."
Michel had a putt for par of five meters but missed, so Lautee had a meter long bogey putt to win. He buried it in the middle.
Lautee proudly studied the names on the old trophy outside the clubhouse, and achieved his greatest victory to date.
"Absolutely, there are some great players out there," he said. "It is an honor to be on the same list as she."
Technology student Swinburn University started his wave at Rosanna and went to Kingston Heath three years ago. He is now focused on golfing.
"I hope to be in the VIS next year, possibly to travel abroad and play some of the big events," he said.
"I feel like I'm pretty stable, I do not make too many mistakes, that's the key to my game." & # 39;
Hot conditions and a windy north wind made life difficult for the players in the 36-hole final, but Hinson-Tolchard flourished on the second 18, with a left-to-right curling birdie putt to follow Ruduigy's birdie on the par-five sixth and then a sand wedge hit third shot within a meter on the par-five seventh.
By the time she donated another birdie from the pony of the eighth and then also the ninth and tenth birdied, she was sixteen and almost at home. Rudgeley had sent her brother Ben to the sidelines as a caddy and her mother pushed her buggy, but the Mt Lawley teenager won the 12th and 13th to give herself a chance for a miraculous recovery, until Hinson-Tolchard made another bomb for birdie at the 14th that the day encapsulated.
They are WA teammates from way back.
"We know each other's games pretty well and we play a similar game, so I knew it would be difficult," said Hinson-Tolchard, who plays from the Gosnells club.
"She is a good match player and she has a good short game, I was nervous today, a bit shaky in the first tee box, but once I got started, I concentrated on doing what I do and get the birdies and it went well. & # 39;
Hinson-Tolchard, who just finished 11 studies at Penrhos College in Perth, was delighted with the victory.
"This is a pretty big one, it's kind of top of my year, this is one of my biggest senior events and my first senior title so I'm very happy to get it." & # 39;
Both Lautee and Hinson-Tolchard earn start in the ISPS Handa Vic Open on 13th Beach from 7 to 10 February with their victories. Hinson-Tolchard also deserves a place in the ISPS Handa Women's Australian Open at The Grange in Adelaide, the week after the Vic Open
