Having dominated the event for the past two years and proven she can handle any sort of pressure thrown at her from opposing players or from the tournament situation, she looks destined to do it in style.

At the same stage of last year’s tournament, young gun Anna McHugh had managed to stay within striking distance and trailed by six shots going into the third round.

It didn’t seem to worry the leader, who stormed home and claimed victory by 20 shots.

So far in 2016 she has bettered that effort after posting rounds of 78 and 76 to sit at 10-over par with a total of 154.

Her nearest rival is Denise Simpson on 173, while Dee McCarthy is another two shots back.

At the same stage last year, Litchfield was on 158.

“Always in these events the aim is to try to shoot four rounds under 80. Generally that should be enough to win or get very close to it,” she said.

“On Saturday there were good and bad parts of my game. On Sunday I was pretty solid the whole way around, but I four-putted on the 18th. It was a bit of an Ernie Els moment that cost me a few shots.

“But I’m feeling pretty comfortable about how things have gone. Some of the better golfers in the field probably didn’t play their best in rounds one and two. Some of the handicappers around 10 or so didn’t play as well as they would have liked, which has helped.”

Litchfield was a promising junior and won numerous club championships in places like Victoria before focusing more on her work life and is effectively in her second incarnation as a golfer.

She has come back in the best fashion possible, snaring two club championships at Bathurst as well as last year’s Bathurst Open.

Her form leading into this event was good, highlighted by her victory at the Orange Ex-Services Open, which she claimed by four shots two weekends ago.

Those sorts of title wins take extra significance for her these days.

“If anything they probably mean more now. I work full-time and have little, if any, time for proper practice, so it is nice to play consistently,” she said.

“I took out the Bathurst Open last year in May and I’ll definitely be lining up for that again in a few weeks. We’ve already got 70 golfers entered, which is great, and we are hoping for more than 100. There should be some really good, low single-figure handicap players coming up for that.”

In the other grades at the club championship, Cindy Perfect has a five-shot lead over Kae Anderson in the B grade competition and Judy Tyson leads Toni Pender by six strokes in the C grade division.