Australian Ladies Classic final showdown cancelled
Declared the winners – Nicole Brosch Estrup (Den) Jess Whiting (Aust) Peiying Tsai (Taiwan)
Amidst great disappointment, the final round of the already weather-shortened Australian Women’s Classic at the Bonville Resort in Coffs Harbour has been canceled and the event decided on the opening 18 holes played over a total of 35 hours on Friday and Saturday.
Rain stopped play early on Friday and it took until 6.30 on Saturday to complete round one at which time a cut was made and a decision made to play the event as (hopefully) a 36-hole contest provided today’s final round could be played.
But the weather system that has been lingering around the north coast of NSW unleashed another 80 mm of rain overnight and although hopes were still held to get play underway this afternoon the impact on the Bonville layout had been such that no play was possible.
According to a statement on the Golf NSW website “player representatives inspected the course alongside the Bonville superintendent, and with no realistic chance of the course being prepared in a condition commensurate with the tournament ideals, the decision was academic.”
Therefore, the three first and only round leaders, Nicole Broch Estrup of Denmark, Peiying Tsai of Chinese Taipei and Western Australian Jess Whitting were declared the winners.
Such a shame for the field of Australian and International golfers, many of whom had traveled widely to get to play the two consecutive Ladies European Tour events held in NSW.
As a show of goodwill, tournament promoters, Golf NSW, will issue a $500 payment to every player in the field to assist in travel costs incurred during the week.
Last week’s Women’s NSW Open was a considerable success but this week’s events have put a real dampener (literally) on the two-week Australian swing for the LET.
