Lisa Herbert didn’t leave much doubt once match play began.
The Paraparaumu Beach left-hander topped stroke play qualifying with a 1-over 75, then carried that control straight through the bracket to win the New Zealand Women’s Senior Championship in Gisborne.
Herbert opened match play with a 4 & 3 win over Karen Hay, followed it with a commanding 5 & 3 victory against Megan Allen in the second round, and then closed out third seed Jenny Peters 2 & 1 in the final to lift the title.
The decisive moment of the week may have come earlier. In her semifinal, Herbert holed a 6-iron on the 133-metre 15th at Poverty Bay to seal her spot in the Division 1 final — the kind of shot that swings momentum and belief at the same time.
The championship field featured 92 players — 86 New Zealanders and six Australians aged 50 and over — competing over one round of stroke play followed by match play at the firm, undulating Awapuni Links layout.
For Herbert, this win adds to a résumé that continues to deepen. A former international and two-time left-handed world champion, she claimed the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC) Senior Amateur Championship last year, at Vinpearl in Vietnam. She fired rounds of 73, 75 and a closing 67 to secure the regional crown, adding it to the New Zealand Women’s Masters title she won in April.
This week, she did it the old-fashioned way: qualify first, control the matches, and close when it mattered.
