Jack Williams
SEATON, Australia (March 24, 2014) -- Jack Williams from The Grange Golf Club has defeated Kooyonga’s Daniel Speirs on the 36th hole to win the South Australian Amateur Championship 1up.
It was William's second state title after winning in 2012 over Brad Moules on the 38th hole.
“I feel pretty proud of myself this time, I felt more relaxed than the last final, infact I’ve been really relaxed all week.” Williams said.
Hosted by Kooyonga, the morning round was played in mild conditions, with a light breeze and after 18 holes the players were all square.
“The first 18 I wasn’t really hitting it that well, I was hitting it right. I knew what it was, but just couldn’t get out of it. I stayed in the contest by managing to get up and down from everywhere, I was pretty much scrambling.” Williams added.
“With about 4 or 5 holes left in the morning, I just took a step back and really thought about what I was doing, I started thinking about targets instead of my swing and started hitting it a lot better. “
“I decided that my plan was to go out in the afternoon and play for pars and then I started with a birdie to go 1up, and then birdied again.” Williams said.
As the crowd got bigger Williams adrenalin started to pump and he began to over hit.“On the 3rd, I hit it through the back of the green and on the 4th I was long by 20 meters. I was really trying to just relax, breath and just swing a bit smoother.”
All square on the 6th, Williams drove right, into the long stuff. As Speirs made the green in two, Williams decided to go for broke with his second and hit it to within 20 feet to square the hole.
Speirs won the 7th and 8th holes to move to two up after 26 holes.“When I was two down I decided to get aggressive and try to make as many birdies as I could. On the long par 4, 10th, into the wind, I hit driver, driver and put it to within 25 feet. That was the turning point as I then won the next two holes to move to 1 up.”“I was thinking if I could get two up, that would be a great position to be in’.
However, Speirs won the next hole to square the contest again with 5 to play.Williams then won the 15th & 16th with pars to move back to two up, then on the 17th hole, Williams was too aggressive and his chip shot rolled through the green, past the flag, into the water, keeping Speirs in the ball game.
Speirs had the honour on the 18th, but after his drive found trees down the right hand side, Williams was in the box seat.
“I saw where Danny went and knew it would be pretty tough for him to make birdie from there and thought to myself, just hit it on the fairway and then centre of green.”After Williams hit the prefect drive to the centre of the fairway, Speirs went for broke, only to see his shot run through the green up onto the rear mound.
“I said to my caddie prior to my second shot, I’m not going long, just be short of the hole and I still ended up 15 feet past the flag”. Williams said.
“Danny got up and down from an impossible position and I though just lag it up to the hole and that’s all I would need for a par to win 1 up. I managed to do it.”
“Having won the Amateur in 2012 and stroke play last year, I said to my mum and dad at the start of the week I wanted to win both the stroke play and match play in the one event.”
“All in all, I’m pretty happy with winning the Champs and being equal leading qualifier and only going down to Scott after he made birdie in the playoff”.
“I can’t wait for the next tournament, the Golf SA Amateur Classic. My confidence is pretty high and I’m pretty happy with my form and want to win a leading national rankling event.”
After accepting his award, Williams dedicated his win to fellow Grange member Tony Mazzone who recently passed. Williams said Mazzone was “a really good mate who supported me and who did a massive amount for both juniors at Grange and The Grange Simpson Cup team”.