Riversdale crowns two new champions

Yuna Nishimura and Chris Crabtree with their Riversdale Cup trophies today. Photo: Riversdale GC

The Japanese Yuna Nishimura and Sunshine Coast sensation Chris Crabtree have etched their names alongside the legends to win the Riversdale Cup.

Nishimura, 18, blew away the field of women with a stunning final round 69 that gave her three shots a head start on the field at 10-sank, clearing the way for her to become professional later this year, and once again emphasized the power from the young golfers who come from Japan.

Crabtree, 23, is a two-time club champion of Greg Norman's Pelican Waters on the Sunshine Coast, but had never experienced such turbulent moments as the par-four 18th on Riversdale, when he had a two-meter long right wing. left-breaking putt to win one of the most prestigious amateur events in Australia.

The England-born Queenslander buried it in the back of the cup to deny birdie that two young men from Metropolitan Golf Club were playing in the same group: Blake Collyer and Aiden Didone. Victorian institute of sports stockbroker Collyer dropped the 18th for the lead but could only equalize after his ride long and left of the green and in the deep rough was gone

But if Crabtree had missed, there would have been a play-off. As it was, an eagle lighted up close at the par-five sixth to ignite his round and he ended with a five-under-par 67, equal to the low round of the day and including four consecutive birdies between the eighth and the 11th hole that was arched in the run-up.

Crabtree, coached by Cameron Smith's mentor Grant Field and working from the Queensland Academy of Sport, said he hoped the victory would lead him to go abroad this year because of a better amateur rally in the world

A latecomer in the sport, who had football until his fourteenth. Recently he was in the top 25 of the Queensland PGA championship, a result that predicted today's events. "I feel that this performance is coming", he said later. "It was just a matter of when."

It was the first time he played in a tournament in the last group. He stood right over the last pit and convinced himself that his time was now. "I only said to myself: you put in a million in your life, keep your head down and hear the ball go & # 39; & # 39; & # 39;

Nishimura won a national sports festival in Japan two years ago, but this was her biggest win. She was also second in the inaugural Asia Pacific Championship last year and plans to re-play that event in 2019 with her appeal to a place in the inaugural national women's tournament Augusta.

She separated the field with consecutive birdies on the 11th, 12th and then a long-range bomb on the 13th and then a nine-and-even iron shot to less than half a meter at the par-three 14th hole for a decelerating birdie. Her weekend rounds of 68-69 were on the field, not that she was having a good time. A double bogey on the par-five seventh derailed her almost after she fell into a fall of a fairway and sent her third shot over the back of the raised green.

She was by far the best player in the field, who finished in 73th place earlier this week, although she was not in the Japanese team for the Queen Sirikit Cup in Adelaide. She wore her own pink and white instead of the red and white team uniform of Japan, because she graduated from the Japanese Golf Association program in a rookie game.

"I am very happy," she said. "It was a good weekend."