A slam-dunked birdie putt from 20 feet by Luke Wines on the final hole has clinched Warrnambool Golf Club a thrilling victory at The Scramble Championship Final at Sanctuary Cove Golf and Country Club on the Gold Coast.
Ten teams made the cut to contest the final round of The Championship Final on The Palms Course on Thursday with nine teams left to fight it out for the Consolation Final.
Shepparton Golf Club shot 17.7-under par in the final round to claim the Consolation Final, just 0.6 of a shot ahead of Moranbah Golf Club whose PGA Professional, Josh Bevan, produced one of the highlights of the week with a hole-in-one at the par-3 12th.
Leaders since day one, the Warrnambool team of Luke and Matthew Wines, Tom Batten, Ross Corbett and PGA Professional Ben Ford started brilliantly on Thursday, playing the first nine holes in 11.3-under par.
They maintained that pace with three straight birdies after the turn yet opened the door to the Kooindah Waters Golf Club team with pars at 13, 15 and 17.
A birdie at 17 and nett eagle at the par-4 18th saw Kooindah Waters post 56.6-under par, giving the Warrnambool boys a simple equation that Ford was not willing to share.
“Our scorer told us that we needed a birdie at one of the last two, but there was no chance I was telling these boys,” said Ford, who is based at Eynesbury Golf Club in Melbourne and joined the team at the Regional Qualifier.
“If I told him we needed to hole it to win, it would’ve been missing by three metres.
“I was the only one that went nuts at first. Then I told them it was for the win and then we went really crazy.”
Lead putter as he had been all week, Luke Wines stepped up to the downhill 20-footer for the win and slammed it into the back of the hole, the ball popping up for a final look before disappearing into the bottom of the cup and victory by just 0.3 of a shot.
Even more remarkable was the fact that the left-handed Luke switched to putting right-handed four weeks ago.
“I was putting so bad, I was missing everything,” said Luke.
“One of the boys mentioned it, I just borrowed a mate’s putter and went from there.
“I’ll definitely stick with it; I can’t go back to left-handed now.”
After a heart-breaking one-point grand final loss playing for the North Warrnambool Football Club, Luke believes their victory at Sanctuary Cove will come as something of a shock back home.
“I think most people will be happy for us,” he added.
“They were surprised we got up here, to be honest with you.
“Didn’t expect much from four hacks from Warrnambool but we’ve come here and managed to win, which is nice.”
The 19 Scramble teams were joined by Tour players Michael Sim and Cassie Porter on Thursday, Sim playing the par-3 eighth with each team and Porter the par-3 12th, Porter not required when Bevan made his first career ace for the Moranbah team.
Photo: Lachie Millard/PGA of Australia