FORMAT: 72-hole stroke play
Patience Rhodes overcame a debilitating illness and the best juniors in the country to win the England Girls Championship at Malton and Norton last night.
The week before the flagship event, the Somerset star was laid up with tonsillitis and only decided to try and take part on Friday, travelling up to stay with grandparents in Derbyshire.
She swung a club for the first time in two weeks in completing nine holes of practice on Sunday and managed a full round the day after, ahead of the competition starting on Tuesday.
However the lack of prep did her no harm as she won it in great style, playing some brilliant stuff on the back nine to eclipse 14-year-old Buckinghamshire prodigy Rosie Bee Kim by one shot.
“It’s really exciting to think I’ve done it,” said the 17-year-old Burnham & Berrow player, who came third in the event last year.
“For a week and a half I was in bed, not eating much and I was worried about my energy levels. By the first round I was better but not 100%.”
With 36 holes to play on the final day, stamina was going to be critical and Patience certainly proved she had that, navigating her way around the back nine in two under and going bogey-free from eighth.
Playing in the penultimate group with a marker – Rachel Foster (Prestwick St Andrews) had withdrawn with a shoulder injury halfway through the third round – she put her approaches at 14 and 15 to inside 12 inches for tap-in birdies to move level par
At the next she fired her birdie putt 10 feet past but once again her putter did its job.
At the par five 18th she took driver and then went for it with a three wood but pulled it slightly behind a tree. At this point she discovered she was one ahead with those in the final group out of the running.
“When I saw the state of play I got really nervous. I don’t really like to check the scores and was shaking ahead of pitching out.”
Despite the potential for the enormity of the situation to overwhelm her, Patience produced the chip of her life and gave herself two for it from 12 feet. She just missed with the birdie, re-marked and found the bottom of the cup from two feet.
On the front nine she enjoyed a rollercoaster ride, Birdieing the first, second, fifth and seventh but a wayward drive led to a double bogey at the third and she also bogeyed six and eight.
Her nearest challenger Rosie Bee was in the group ahead and stormed into the reckoning on the final day with a pair of 71s although she unfortunately bogeyed her final hole having birdied 17.
Maggie Whitehead closed with a 72 to finish third on three over to maintain her remarkably consistent run of results.