Thirty-two years after claiming her first Norfolk Ladies County Championship, Sheringham’s Tracey Williamson secured her ninth thanks to a brilliant iron shot in a play-off at Royal Norwich GC.
Her final battle with 16-year-old home favourite Eve Neild was closely-fought all the way through but a tremendous tee shot on the second extra hole proved critical and Tracey held her nerve to make the birdie putt.
Tracey said: ”It’s a very proud moment for me as, after 40 years of playing in the Championship, I had started to wonder if I would ever have the opportunity to win this again due to the ever increasing young talent pool coming through and me simply getting older.”
The champion, who won her first title at her home course in 1989, had to overcome the number one ranked player from strokeplay qualifying. Eve won the Lady Betty Trafford Cup thanks to rounds of 73 and 76 and then had some big wins in the knockout stages.
In the final the teenager could not dominate though and they reached the turn all square but she did take the lead at the 10th.
A birdie from Tracey at 12 meant it was once again level pegging but not for long as the Royal Norwich player regained the lead at 13 and it stayed that way until the 18th where Eve struggled in a green side bunker and a par from her opponent was enough to prolong the match.
The first extra hole was halved with pars before the Sheringham golfer came up with the goods and Eve could only manage a par.