England Girls Championship reaches remarkable conclusion
In week of record-breaking temperatures, Sophia Fullbrook left scorch marks on the fairways and greens of the The Wilmslow in winning the England Girls Championship in the most astonishing fashion last night.
FORMAT: 72-hole stroke play
Closing rounds don’t get much better than the ten-under-par 62 she produced to overhaul Ireland’s Rebekah Gardner. The Hertfordshire junior was ten back after the third round.
However in the space of just ten incredible holes, Fullbrook had drawn level, having got to eight under for her round. She added further birdies at 12 and 13 to moved ahead and then parred in to record the biggest victory of her life.
It completed a rollercoaster day for both players. In the morning third round, Gardner looked to have built an unassailable lead thanks to a 65. In contrast her playing partner slumped to a 74 having finished double bogey, bogey, bogey.
But my how that all changed in the afternoon as Fullbrook went out in 29 (-7) and held it together brilliantly for her first national title. The only slight downer was her fourth-round effort could not be considered a course record because the event was played off a mixture of red and yellow tees.
“All parts of my game came together,” said the 16-year-old, who lowered her best competition round score by four shots, just a week after she had bettered it by two. In winning the Bridget Jackson Bowl at Handsworth on July 12th she had finished things off with a six-under 67.
“I was just concentrating on the gap. We had scorers walking around with us displaying our scores so you couldn’t hide from that.
“I know I needed to go ridiculously low and the putts kept dropping, which didn’t happen in the morning.”
Dad Rod followed her round the whole way and was understandably proud.
“That was pretty special,” he said. “She seemed pretty calm. She got in the zone and that was it.
“It also looked stress free. She kept hitting fairways and greens and the proudest thing for me was she able to keep it going under those circumstances.”
The new champion also paid tribute to her playing partner who was visibly distressed after walking off the 18th.
“Her morning round was just amazing,” said Fullbrook, who was also the leading girl at the England U-18s earlier this month. “She was playing so well and every shot in seemed to go next to the pin.”
Gardner, who finishing third at the Fairhaven Trophy, went bogey free in the third round, eagling the seventh on her way to a seven-under-par score.
However the mood and momentum changed very early after lunch as The Melbourne Club player rolled in a 15-footer at the first.
The second had been casuing her problems all week and she was happy to escape with a four but thereafter it was just one birdie/eagle chance after another.
At the par five third she was on in two and tapped in for a four before draining a 20-footer at the next.
With Gardner bogeying the second, it meant the gap had been halved by the time they walked off the sixth as Fullbrook sunk a ten-footer to get to four under but the best was still yet to come.
That became six under after seven as she flushed her “longest ever drive” and took full advantage to ping an eight iron to 12 feet and she made no mistake with the eagle opportunity.
At the eighth in went another 20-footer and she was in dreamland.
Remarkably she missed one of her easier birdie opportuites at the next to turn in 28 but soon got back on the birdie train, rolling it in from 12 feet to draw level with her playing partner, who turned in 38.
After missing from 15 feet at the 11th, she nailed a seven footer at 12 and then got to the magical ten under at the par five 13th where she got up and down from the back of a green-side bunker. Everything was working for her.
Conscious of the problems she had encountered down the stretch in the morning she played it “smart” from 14 onwards although her lead was halved as the Northern Ireland golfer got one back at 15 but gave it straight back at the next. She found bunker trouble off the tee and did well to get up and down for a bogey.
There were no such alarms for Fullbrook, who clubbed up at 17 having missed the target short in the morning. Her opponent did have a 15-footer for a two but could not convert.
Then at the par five 18th, Gardner again found sand with her drive while the leader plotted her way on to the putting surface in three and cosied her birdie attempt to the side of the hole to complete the round of her life and arguably the round of the season.