Victoria and Queensland met in the eight-match final on Wednesday afternoon, the home state ending the round robin matches as No.1 with 4.5 points, followed closely by Victoria with 4 points.
Led by a powerful men’s squad that boasted Asia-Pacific Amateur champion Jasper Stubbs and Queensland PGA champion Phoenix Campbell, the Victorians established an early ascendancy before the Queenslanders fought back.
Southport member Shyla Singh scored the first point of the final with a 2&1 win over Molly McLean and when Hannah Reeves closed out Seabil Leong 2&1, Queensland held a narrow 2-1 edge.
But Victorian blue dominated the right side of the match-ups with Abel Eduard (2&1 over Will Bowen), co-captain Connor McDade (3&1 over Harry Takis) and Amelia Harris (2&1 over Justice Bosio) all ending their matches on the 17th hole.
While Lincoln Morgan took Campbell all the way to the 18th green before losing 1-down, it was already a dead rubber as both Stubbs (4&3 over Quinn Croker) and Roberts (3&2 over Sarah Hammett) had secured the points necessary to clinch victory.
The final score read 6-2 and served as the perfect way for McDade to sign off on his amateur career.
“I’ve never won an Interstate Series and I’ve heard how good it can be and what it means to people,” said McDade, who won all five of the matches he played.
“This was my last event as an amateur so to go undefeated and get the win, it’s just a great way to finish my amateur career.”
McDade narrowly missed out on selection for the Victorian team that won two years ago and said that had been a motivating factor leading into this week.
“It was difficult,” he admitted.
“I felt like I played good enough to get picked, but they put a team together that ended up winning, so can’t fault that.
“I was part of the team last year and it kind of hurt to not be in the final and have a chance to win.
“I was very motivated today to head out and try and finish the job and earn a trophy for it.”
McDade was in fact part of two winning teams as the Victorians also won the Men’s Interstate Teams Matches decided at the completion of the round robin matches.
The Queensland contingent of Singh, Reeves, Bosio, Hammett and Ionna Muir won the Women’s Interstate Teams Matches, providing some comfort after the disappointment of losing the final.
Playing in her second Interstate Teams competition and out in the first match of the final, it marked the end to a memorable week for Singh.
“This was my last event as an amateur so to go undefeated and get the win, it’s just a great way to finish my amateur career.” – Connor McDade.
“I definitely had home course advantage so I tried to use that the best I could,” said Singh.
“And, of course, all the support from all the members that came out to watch me was great to see.
“I’m really proud of the rest of the team. All the work we put in and how we played this week. It didn’t go our way, but we still played pretty strong.
“It’s great to be able to get some sort of trophy.”
Roberts was the only player to play and win all six matches the past three days, Harris finishing with 5.5 points from a possible six after halving her match against Tasmania’s Jorjah Bailey on Wednesday morning.
McDade, Campbell and Stubbs all accrued five points across the six matches while Singh, Reeves and Bowen were Queensland’s best performers, all ending the week with 3.5 points each.
– Tony Webeck.
