Bathurst achieved the double in male and female winners at the Bathurst Junior Classic golf tournament on Sunday for the first time since 2013.
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Top talented golfers from around the Central West took part in the tournament and in the end it was 14-year-old Ben Mackey for the males and 13-year-old Casey Thompson for the females taking top honours.
Scott Matheson and Emma McCarthy were successful the last time the Bathurst Golf Club achieved a double at the tournament.
Defending champions James Conran of Duntryleague and Emma McCarthy of Bathurst were unable to defend their crown, paving the way for two first-time winners.
Even though the tournament is held in Bathurst, locals have struggled to dominate, with only six local winners since 2000 in the males and eight local winners since 2000 in the females.
Mackey was humble after his victory, saying it was not his best performance, but happy with the win either way.
“I did not play all that well, but in the end I got there,” Mackey said.
“Back nine I played pretty well, but front nine I struggled to keep what I had, but I came through in the end.”
Competition was tough on the day, with Mackey’s play partner competing with him neck-and-neck through the day, until his play partner gave away a hole at the 16th hole.
It was not Mackey’s best performance in golf – he has hit lower scores in other tournaments than his 77 on Sunday – but there will be no complaints from Mackey after he knocked-off the favourite from Dubbo, Lachlan Jones, who scored 79 and finished second.
Thompson scored 95 to take home the honours in the female section in a tough field, edging past second-placed Hannah Knight of Bathurst.
After taking home the junior classic, Thompson will be heading to Sydney next week to compete in the Australian Genesis Golf Link Cup.
Performances at the cup will help Thompson’s push to qualify for the final at the New South Wales Golf Club at Le Perouse in Sydney in November.
Thompson is just hopeful of some good scores and a good performance at the cup.
“I just want to shoot low scores, just try my best and see how I go,” she said.
Bathurst Golf Club head professional Matt Barrett said the course made for a great day of golf.
“We had visitors from Cowra, Blayney, Forbes and Dubbo,” Barrett said.
“It was great to see so many Bathurst people enter as well and they won almost all awards on the day.”
