As State Coach in charge of Western Australia’s elite junior girl golfers we recently travelled to South Australia to represent Western Australia in the Interstate Series. The Western Australian team are represented by Jessica Whitting, Maddison Tolchard along with MLGC members Hira Naveed, Claudia Pisano, Alysha Ahnantakrishnan and development squad member Kirsten Rudgeley.
The squad including team manager (Sue Thomson) and myself had our practice round booked on the Sunday morning at Fleurieu Golf Club. Two groups of girl went out on course with all players extensively mapping the course, making notes on the greens and developing a strategy of play for the week. The attitude and professionalism of the girls (something we spoke about in training) during what was a very long practice round was very good. Following the practice round the team had a session on the practice range at our accommodation- McClaren Country Club where I tried to help iron out a number of faults and give confidence to a few of the team members. The girls followed up with a big session on the practice green.
Day one of competition saw us taking on Victoria in the morning round followed by New South Wales in the afternoon. Both resulting in losses for the WA team however all the girls played quite well and should be proud of their efforts particularly in the morning with 4 matches going to the 18th hole.
Day two saw us take on the Queensland team with all girls losing their matches, again however most of the team played reasonably well in patches however the consistency of the Queensland team and like with NSW and Vic the greater maturity of the girls competing saw them make the most of their opportunities. With a bye on in the afternoon, following lunch the team all enjoyed a recovery session in the beach water at Victor Harbour.
Day three we played South Australia with a different team line up with an eye to not only the immediate but also the long term future. The Western Australian team received reward for effort with a strong performance against the home team comfortably winning all bar one match.
