AN “exhausted” Judy Carmody needed a two-hole play-off to clinch her 30th Terang Golf Club women’s championship.
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Carmody, 72, was yesterday the toast of the club after prevailing against Marion Venn in the play-off, after they tied on 261 after 54 holes.
Both bogeyed the 18th hole of their third round and backed up with double-bogeys on the first play-off hole, the par-four first.
Carmody held her nerve to par the second play-off hole, the par-four ninth, to take out the championship. Venn finished with a bogey.
“We were both exhausted,” Carmody said.
Carmody won her first Terang Golf Club championship in 1976. But that low-key triumph gave little indication of what was to come.
Her second came in 1980, the first of a 23-year unbeaten streak which ended in 2002. The other six were in 2004-05, 2010-12 and 2015.
“I never even gave (reaching 30) a thought. Those things don’t worry me. I just go along with the flow.”
She signed for rounds of 87 and 85 to open the 2015 championships and finished with an 89.
Windy conditions meant she dropped shots on the back nine, allowing Venn (84-90-87) to mount a comeback.
“Last week was my best round. I chipped and putted well last week and I drove the ball well,” she said.
“Played all right for the first nine this week but then the wind got up, I’m no good in the wind, I really struggled.”
Carmody, a B grade and C grade champion early in her career, was a sporting all-rounder before turning her focus to golf after a knee injury.
Netball, basketball, cricket, tennis, squash and “football with my brothers” also feature on her resume.
“I had to give the other sports away because I did the cruciate ligament in my knee, that was the finish of my netball,” she said.
Terang Golf Club captain Janet Saunders said Carmody’s record would likely stand for years — “I don’t think anyone will ever come near that”.
Saunders praised course curators, including greenskeeper Tim O’Keeffe, for preparing the fairways and greens for the championships.
In other results, Michelle Beasley took out the B grade crown with 280, 15 shots ahead of Sharee Scanlon, 295. Beasley had rounds of 94, 92 and 94.
Jenny Meade was a model of consistency en route to the C grade title.
Meade signed for rounds of 105, 106 and 103, for 314. She finished 17 shots clear of defending champion Jean Lucas, 331.