Cooper Field and Anna Chen after claiming a share of the fifth round of the Southeast Queensland Junior Championship Tour at Maleny.
IT TOOK a hole-in-one by promising junior Cooper Field to win the Maleny leg of the Southeast Queensland Junior Championship Tour – one of two aces on a day of sparkling junior golf.
Cooper, the son of renowned golf coach Grant Field, was two strokes clear of Victorian challenger Archie Alston when they reached Maleny’s 17th hole, a challenging 135m par-three with a sloping left to right green.
Cooper then produced the shot of the tournament to sink his tee-shot and give him a four-shot lead in the 54-hole event with one hole to play in the two-day event in early August.
Even though he finished with a double-bogey six on the final hole, Cooper had a big enough to lead to win the tour’s fifth round by two strokes.
Earlier, Charlie Stratford had scored a hole-in-one of his own, sinking his tee-shot on the first hole of his second round. With Peregian Springs’ junior Ruby Fisher scoring an ace at Gailes earlier in the season, there have been three holes-in-one for the year on tour.
A field of 70 promising young golfers contested the Maleny tournament, a World Amateur Golf Ranking and Queensland State Order of Merit event, organised by Gary Ellis, the president of the Glasshouse Mountains Junior Golf Association.
Players travelled from all areas of Queensland, including Gladstone, Burleigh, Toowoomba, Tin Can Bay, Brisbane, Kingaroy, Bundaberg and the Sunshine Coast, while two competitors made the trip from Victoria.
The girls’ championship went to a playoff after Catherine Sun had led for much of the tournament before late charges from Emily Wei and Anna Chen left both players tied at eight over par.
Returning to Maleny’s difficult 18th hole, Anna Chen prevailed in the playoff to claim the title.
The tour’s next event will be at Beerwah on October 2, 4 and 5, with more than 100 junior golfers expected to compete.