TOM HAYES
GOLF
TRARALGON PRO AM
By TOM HAYES
THE Traralgon Golf Club was host to the Traralgon Pro-Am from Thursday, January 19 to Friday, January 20.
Across two days of action, a clear winner was announced on Friday evening.
The action began as early as Thursday morning, when defending champion, Queensland’s Tim Hart, did the unheard of, scoring a hole-in-one on the Par 4 12th hole.
“You can’t see the green or anything but I hit a good shot. I walked up to the green and saw there was no golf ball anywhere. I checked over the back of the green and it wasn’t there either,” Hart told PGA.
“I thought it might have clipped one of the trees and come up short and then I walked past the hole and sure enough it was in the hole.”
It was the first time that someone had ever recorded a hole-in-one on the 303-metre 12th hole at Traralgon.
This helped Hart to the top of the leader board at the end of day one, joined by previous winner, Matthew Millar from the ACT.
Both Hart and Millar were eight-under par, after Millar eagled on the Par 5 16th hole, along with six birdies.
The two sat one stroke ahead of Ben Paine and Simon Hawkes, with a day of play remaining.
In the second round the following day, Millar began with a birdie on the first hole, while Hart started with two bogeys.
Hart bounced back with a number of birdies, but then fell off on the back nine, while Millar aimed for 14-under.
Though Millar was denied his goal of 14-under, thanks to a bogey on the 11th, his score of five-under added to his existing score compiled for a total of 13-under.
“I had a goal of getting to 14-under. I thought if I got to 14, I still could lose, but you’d be pretty stiff,” Millar told PGA upon winning the Traralgon Pro-Am.
“Unfortunately, I came up one short, but it was still plenty anyway.
“I’ve had a great couple of days. Yesterday I didn’t do much wrong and today was pretty similar.
“There was a little patch early in the back nine, holes 11 and 12, where I was a little bit out of position. But outside of that I played really well and absolutely thrilled to win.”
Millar finished three strokes clear of next best, Hawkes and Andrew Kelly, taking home the title alongside the $5388 prize money.
The 46-year-old joins an illustrious crew of four other people to win the Traralgon Pro Am on multiple occasions; Greg Norman, Darren Cole, Scott Laycock and Peter Wilson.
Laycock is a three-time winner in 2010, 2011 and 2013, while Cole is a four-time champion in the years 1995, 1996, 1999 and 2001.
Millar was presented his trophy by Latrobe City Deputy Mayor, Dan Clancy, who had a busy week at the Traralgon Junior Tennis International and the Traralgon Pro Am.
Code hopper: Traralgon’s Darryl Higginbotham, of tennis notoriety, putts during the pro-am.
Tap it in: Phil Denhouting, representing platinum sponsor Betta Home Living, shows his style.
