Aust. golf to Kiwi woman

Press, 25 September 1989, Page 23

Aust. golf to Kiwi woman

NZPA-AAP Perth The New Zealander, Jan Higgins, had the thrill of her young golfing life when she won the Australian Women’s Golf Championship at Mount Lawley on Saturday. Higgins, aged 23, who is one of a set of triplets, wrote her name into the Australian golfing records with an 11-9 victory over a West Australian, Claire Elvidge. She took charge of the scheduled 38-hole final from the start and recorded the biggest win of her career in a game she took up at the age of 14. “This is the highlight of my golfing life,” said Higgins as she walked off the ninth green in a sharp shower of rain after a successful one and a half metre birdie

putt to clinch the title. She added that the only more memorable event in her life was the day she married her husband, lan, last November. “This will take a while to sink in,” she said as she walked into the clubhouse to prepare for the presentation ceremony. “I hope to defend the title next year, if I can get back to Australia.”

Higgins is the first New Zealander to win the Australian title since Oliver Kay was successful in 1933 and again in 1936. It is also the second consecutive year the championship has gone to an overseas player. Last year Caroline Bourtayre, of France, won at The Australian club in Sydney.

Higgins’s winning margin was the second biggest since matchplay was introduced on a regular basis in 1928. The only easier victory was the 13-11 win recorded by Beatrice Haley, of New South Wales, against Enid Hauritz, of Queensland, at Royal Queensland in 1961.

A nervous Elvidge played into Higgins’s hands from the start

Looseness at the top of her swing brought Elvidge undone and Higgins went to a five-up lead after the first six holes.

Birdies at the seventh and eighth raised Elvidge’s hopes and she turned only three down. However, more loose shots at the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth

holes and a dismal putting effort at the 18th sent Elvidge to lunch decidedly despondent and seven down. The delicate putting touch that had stood Elvidge in good stead in the four matches leading up to the final deserted her. She missed from distances that she had found a matter of course earlier in the tournament, and it did not take long in the afternoon session to indicate that all hope for the local girl had gone. She lost the first, third and fourth holes and was 10 down but got one back at the fifth when Higgins made one of her few errors — she cut her approach and lost the hole to a par. It was back to 10 down

at the seventh and all over at the par five ninth.

Higgins, who plays off a one handicap at the Manukau club in Auckland, and has represented her country six times since 1985, impressed with her solid and compact swing and was always a strong contender for the title from the time she finished with a one-under 73 to set the pace in the first round of stroke play last Monday. She finished equal top qualifier with Wendy Doolan, of New South Wales, and got better in each round of matchplay. She was never put under pressure on Saturday and is a worthy winner of the most prestigious women’s golf event in Australia.