Injury-afflicted Fiona Edmond went into the English Senior Women’s Championship at Market Rasen concerned elbow problems would prevent her going beyond the 36-hole strokeplay qualifier but she completed seven rounds in five days on her way to carrying off the title for the second time in four years.
The Aldeburgh player has been struggling physically for the past three seasons and had played virtually no competitive golf in the run-up to the event she first won at South Staffordshire in 2017 although she did manage 54 holes at the English Senior Women’s Strokeplay Championship two weeks earlier when she finished second.
But she produced some sublime stuff in the run-up to the final – notably in her semi-final victory over Clarissa Bushell (West Sussex) – before digging deep against Jane Southcombe (Yeovil) and claiming the championship at the first extra hole in slightly surreal circumstances.
After her opponent from Dorset had battled back from three down after six, they returned to the par five first where Jane thinned her third shot into the trees behind the green only for the ball to richochet back on to the putting surface and finish 20 feet from the pin. Fiona had reached the front in two and hit a beautiful pitch to four feet while her opponent lagged her putt to a similar distance. With the referee unable to determine who should play next just using the foot-measuring method, there was much deliberating on how they should complete the task
The solution was for Fiona’s caddy – husband Andy – to wrap a towel around the flagstick, enabling them to not break any Covid restrictions, and use that to work out that Fiona should go next.
The Suffolk player duly holed out to complete a remarkable week.
“I have really struggled with my elbows and to be honest I thought if I complete two strokeplay rounds and then have to withdraw at least I will have earned myself some ranking points,” said Fiona, who was first reserve in the 1991 Curtis Cup but was forced to give up golf soon after and only started playing again in 2013. She has six children and also fought a long battle with the debilitating ME.
“I entered the Senior Women’s Strokeplay at Hayling to see how it would go and was struggling to find my game a bit. I came here with no expectations and was just trying to get through the week without doing damage to the elbows.”
In the final she won the first three holes with pars as her final opponent, who had beaten leading qualifier Tracy Williamson (Sheringham) in the quarter-final, struggled to find the form that had gotten her through the previous four rounds.
“Andy said to me pounce early because she will be nervous and it played out that way,” added Fiona, who despite all her physical issues runs a successful gardening-related business (www.greenislandgardens.co.uk)
But the Dorset player took advantage of her opponent’s tree-related problems at the seventh to cut the gap to two and that was how it stayed until halfway.
At the tenth Fiona found more trouble to register another double bogey and by the 12th the match was all square as Jane repeated her short-game heroics from the previous hole to get up and down from an unlikely spot while her playing partner missed a short putt.
The former champion regained her lead at the par three 14th where she pinged her five wood to 15 feet and holed out for a stunning two. In the morning she had closed out her match at the hole with virtually the same tee shot and putt.
At the next Jane got into difficulty and walked off two down with three to play but a loose drive from her opponent opened the door and a par was enough to halve the deficit.
The penultimate hole was halved before the Yeovil player made an excellent three at the last to force the match into extra time where Fiona kept her cool to win the Wendy Taylor Salver.
The champion qualified third for the knockout phases behind the English strokeplay champion and Yorkshire’s Karen Jobling (Richmond).
Meanwhile the O-60s competition was won by Cameberley Heath’s Sheree Dove-Wilde. She saw off Betty Sworowski of Wakefield at the second extra hole.