JUDY Finkle is wearing the women’s CCC crown after an exciting showdown at the local course on Sunday. The event is a new one on the ladies calendar, with the potential to become a major feature of next year’s program.
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All competitors were full of praise for the event format and the quality of golf played during the final was extremely high.
Having said that, any hiccup in form is harshly penalised and Julie Moon, would still be regretting her form with the putter, dropping out of contention on the fourth hole after almost birdying the third.
Lining up on the fifth, players were beginning to show a hint of nervousness, having lost the first player from the competition on the previous hole and some of the tee shots were a demonstration of this.
With Judy Finkle already on the green, two players in the front bunker, Barb Beveridge over the green and Margaret Bishop in the scrub to the left, it fell to Loo Manning to match it with the A-Grade Champ and for a brief moment it looked like she had the goods.
Manning’s ball came off the club sweet and straight only to find a hidden boulder guarding the sand traps at the front of the green and making a dramatic right turn toward the road before settling behind a tree. Manning found herself cut off from the hole and shown the door before the sixth.
Walking to the par five sixth, you got a sense that players were starting to grasp just what this event was about and with all finding themselves fairly even at the green, it took a three way chip-off that saw Jacky Caldwell putting her stick back in the bag to become a spectator for the remaining holes.
The four left standing, Crick, Finkle, Beveridge and Bishop, reached the seventh green and by now it was apparent to all competitors that it was more a case of not losing the hole rather than winning it. Marg Bishop skinnied her chip across the green and uncharacteristically struggled to recover her composure, dipping out of the competition with two holes left to play.
And then there were three. Finkle long bombed down the middle of the 8th, with Beveridge and Crick in no trouble. Beveridge came up short with her second shot, with Crick in the sand at the front. Finkle soon found herself in the middle of the green after her lob spun back from the hole, leaving her in the driver’s seat. Despite her own predictions of imminent disaster, Crick’s shot from the trap was a beauty and with Beveridge’s chip well short all three walked off the green with two points and a chip-off to decide the final pairing.
As chip-off’s go, the spot chosen by the Marshall, was a short-sided tester which had all three competitors on edge and unfortunately for her, it was Barb Beveridge who blinked leaving the two Judy’s to duke it out on the ninth.
As final holes go, the result for both competitors couldn’t have been any more different unless they’d played on different courses. Finkle’s tee shot soared majestically through the air and onto the green, while Crick’s sputtered and darted into a tussock of grass 40 metres off the tee. Crick’s resultant drop resulted in a difficult lie and three more poor shots followed before Crick made the green. Finkle closed out the event with a two putt par and a nine hole score of 1 over, making sure it was all over Red Rover and walking off with the 2014 Triple C crown.
Ladies Captain Kate White praised the concept of the competition, thanking sponsor Bruce Carberry for expanding it to include the ladies for the first time this year.
“I think the Triple C Challenge is a fantastic event and I know the ladies who competed in the final enjoyed it immensely, I’m hoping that it is one we’ll see continue for a long time to come,” Kate said.
