JOANNA Flaherty wants to bow out of amateur golf ranks on a winning note.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The former Warrnambool and Port Fairy player, who will start a traineeship in December, will compete in Commonwealth Golf Club’s women’s championship final on Sunday.
A visit to Rye for the Golf Victoria-run Dunes Medal the following week will round out her amateur career.
“It would mean a lot (to win the Commonwealth title) because it is my last club championship because I start my traineeship in December,” Flaherty said.
“I lose my amateur status when I start my traineeship.”
Flaherty is eager to better her 2017 runner-up finish. She will play Wodonga’s Casey Wilde in the 36-hole Commonwealth decider.
Flaherty moved to Melbourne on Saturday, setting up home in Caulfield, just 15 minutes from her new full-time course.
She put the stress of moving aside to win her quarter-final four shots up with three holes to play and the semi-final 2/1 on Sunday. She will enjoy some downtime after a hectic week before preparing to meet Wilde in the grand final.
“It’s anyone’s game,” Flaherty, who was seeded first entering the matchplay section of the championships, said.
“She spent four years over at college in America playing golf and she’s just come back.
“I have played with her a little bit. I reckon it will be a really close match.”
But Flaherty, a four-time Warrnambool champion and past winner at Port Fairy, conceded her form would have to improve.
“I hung in there (in the quarters and semis), I wasn’t playing that great,” she said.
“In my afternoon match I was well down but managed to get up in the end which was good. Things started to fall my way, a couple of putts dropped.”
Flaherty will line up in the Dunes Medal – an event she secured a top-10 finish in 12 months ago – next Thursday and Friday.
Her focus will then turn to trainee events which are usually played on Mondays.
“You’ve got to average certain scores and play 30 rounds a year (to retain your traineeship status),” she said.
“You play for a little bit of cash every week which is nice – if you play good enough.”
Port Fairy member Noah Best made the quarter-finals in his first Commonwealth men’s championship. The Warrnambool-based teenager was seeded third entering the matchplay rounds following 36 holes of stroke. But he fell 2/1 on Sunday to bow out of contention. Warrnambool’s Caleb Perry missed the quarter-finals after he was eliminated in a three-man sudden-death playoff to determine seventh and eighth on Saturday.