[Image: Candice High/Australian Golf Media]
Victorian Brett Coletta has delivered a course-record round of nine-under 61 to win TPS Hunter Valley at Cypress Lakes Resort at the fourth playoff hole.
After making the cut on the number, Coletta was eight strokes off the lead when he teed off at 9.17am, three hours and 17 minutes prior to the final group of Lincoln Tighe and Jack Munro.
Three hours and 41 minutes after signing for his nine-under 61, Coletta was headed back to the 18th tee for a playoff against Tighe.
The pair both had birdie chances on the first three visits back down 18 before a wayward tee shot that saw his ball finish alongside a tree left of the fairway put Tighe on the back foot.
Coletta safely found the left side of the green with his approach and after punching out to the rough, Tighe had a snaking putt of some 20 feet to make par.
That burned the edge of the hole to give Coletta two putts for victory, his first since the 2016 Queensland Open.
Playing on invites for the majority of the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia season, Coletta now has a winner’s category for the next two years and direct entry into next week’s New Zealand Open at Millbrook Resort.
His nine-under 61 bettered Blake Windred’s previous course record of eight-under 64 and gave him an anxious wait all afternoon.
“I’m going to be honest, you’re just waiting for that blowout,” Coletta said of trying to keep a hot round going.
“You’re just holding on, especially on this back nine. Nine’s a tough shot today with that wind off the right and then you just hold on through 10, 11, 12, even 13 today into the wind. Fourteen for that matter and 15! You’re just holding on for those five or six holes and you get a couple of nice ones to finish off.
“I played super solid all day. I impressed myself, honestly.”
Hervey Bay PGA Associate Lachlan Wood added to his Vic Open Inclusive Championship victory with a five-stroke win over Cameron Pollard in the All Abilities Players Series Hunter Valley.
Wood had rounds of 74-79 to win his first Players Series event, Pollard’s consolation a Webex grant as the overall winner of the Webex Players Series.
In the Junior Players Series Hunter Valley, New South Wales Golf Club’s Ann Jang won by four strokes from Grafton’s Hollie Fuller with Brodie Herring and Desiree Herden sharing third spot.
