Kayla not at her best but still collects prize

TWO new names will go on the Peter O’Malley Junior Golf Open shield with Jarryd Bird and Kayla Smith finishing as the boys and girls’ winners at the Bathurst Golf Club on Sunday.

Bathurst talent Bird had finished as runner-up to Ian Nightingale in 2008 but this time he was able to get his revenge, edging out the Lithgow golfer and James Cusack by one shot for the title, finishing with a birdie on the final hole to secure victory.

Orange golfer Smith also had to work hard for her victory but it was more her concern at her own game rather than the opposition that proved to be the problem.

She eventually finished with 99, four shots clear of second-placed Chloe McCarthy from Cumnock, but she was far from happy.

“I wasn’t happy. I had a shocker. I had way too many shots, I should have had 90 not nearly 100,” she said.

“My chipping let me down, I had four shanks which really hurt.”

Smith wasn’t the only one who found the conditions tough. More than 110mm fell on the course between Wednesday and Sunday and Bird said that made things interesting.

“It was pretty tough out there, there wasn’t a lot of run in the greens,” he said.

“It was very hard because the greens were pretty long. I don’t think they cut them at all with the amount of rain we have had since (last) Sunday. They wouldn’t have been able to get out there and cut anything. Walking up the first fairway the grass was like the rough.”

Bird said it took him a couple of holes to adjust his game.

“It took me a little while to get the putter working but I got there in the end,” he said.

His round started with a double bogey and then another dropped shot on the second but he became much more consistent after that and found two birdies. Another two bogeys on the 10th and 11th holes were a setback as he came into the 18th hole one shot behind Wellington player Cusack.

However, he was able to pick up a birdie while Cusack ran into trouble and Nightingale didn’t have any answers either.

“It was very tight until the end, I was actually one shot behind James Cusack coming down the last but he hit it left into a pine tree and had to take an unplayable and had to take a penalty there. I knocked it to within three or four foot and made birdie, which was good.

“It’s good. Ian got me in 2008. I played with him and he was just holing everything. We went out today and he came out hot, went par, birdie, par, birdie. I was a bit worried after making a double and then a bogey on the second but I thought surely he can’t produce his putting form.”