State Semi Finals Success for Sarah

Sarah Hammett aged 13, played in two of the Queensland’s premier amateur golf events for women last week. The Queensland Women’s Strokeplay event was held at Arundel Hills and played over four rounds (72 holes), from Sunday to Tuesday, finishing with 36 holes on the Tuesday.

The greens were fast, there were strong winds on the first two days and the course was set up to be challenging. Sarah recorded rounds of 79, 77, 77 and 80 to finish tied for seventh place overall – quite an achievement for the Year 8 Somerset student.

The top 16 players qualified for the Queensland Women’s Amateur, which is a knockout matchplay event. In her first round she was up against a Queensland Women’s State player, Rhianna Lewis and in a tight game Sarah managed a 3 and 2 win. Then came the daunting task of taking on the tournament’s Hyejun Park, the No.1 seed and the 85th ranked woman in the world! After 14 holes they were all square and then Sarah managed to win the 15th and 16th holes to go 2 up. On the 17th they both played into the greenside bunker for their second shots but Sarah managed to play a great shot to about 50 centimetres away from the hole. Her opponent hit it to about 3 metres but missed the putt leaving Sarah to finish off for par and complete an unexpected win.

The semi-final followed against Mirabel Ting and she ended Sarah’s remarkable run 5 and 4. To reach the semi-final of the Queensland Amateur is a fantastic achievement for anybody, let alone someone so young. Sarah certainly has a bright future ahead and her positive attitude to sport is an example to everyone.

Sarah and her two brothers (Justin and David), together with Flynn Carter are off to Cairns this weekend as part of the South Coast team to play at the Queensland Schools State championships. Justin and Sarah are competing in the 13 to 19 years championships and Flynn and David are in the 10 to 12 years event. Go South Coast!

Sarah still has a busy year ahead. In the September School holidays, she plays in the Katherine Kirk Classic, an Australian Junior ranking event, which is played on the Sunshine coast at Maroochy River Golf club. Normally, she would also be playing in the Jack Newton International in the Hunter Valley in the second week of the holidays but with the border closures, unfortunately, they have had to cancel that tournament this year. She will play in a number of one day events through to December when she will compete in the Greg Norman Junior Masters which is a great event to finish off the year.