BEN Stowe was in a class of his own on the path to victory in Monday’s Coca Cola Bathurst Trainee Pro-Am.
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Stowe shot a superb round of 65 (-6) on the Bathurst Golf Club course to win by four strokes from his nearest rival Andrew Brennan.
Jason Perkin and Adriana Brent both shot rounds of 70 to share third place.
With Stowe’s day including four straight birdies it’s not a round the Royal Sydney Golf Club trainee professional will forget in a hurry.
”I just hit it nice and straight, didn’t make too many mistakes and hit a lot of greens. I don’t think I missed a green all day, actually,” Stowe said.
“It’s the first time I’ve been here so I wasn’t expecting too much from myself. I was just hoping to plod my way around and post a good score. There were nice conditions out there, which helped.”
Despite having not seen the course before Stowe was still one of the players to watch at the Bathurst tournament, coming to the city equal fourth on the NSW Trainee Order of Merit.
It only took him a few holes to show what he was capable of.
Stowe started his round on the sixth hole and opened his day with a pair of pars.
Then came the winning moment, as Stowe sunk birdies on holes 8, 9, 10 and 11 to put himself in the box seat.
The left-hander was flawless for the rest of the day as birdies on holes 15 and 18 took him out to an unassailable lead.
Even with the win to his name Stowe felt his Bathurst round could have been even better.
“I left a little bit out there. I should have holed a few more putts that I missed but that’s golf, you’re not going to hole everything every day,” he said.
“I really enjoyed the course. It was presented really well and the greens were phenomenal. There was nice speed and it was nice and soft, so you could get aggressive with the approach shots.”
Stowe didn’t let an early chance to go under par get the better of him mentally.
“I lipped out for birdie on my second hole of the day,” Stowe said.
“Then I just rolled in some good putts and hit some really nice iron shots and that gave me lot of confidence to swing freely and be a little more aggressive.
“I’ll be definitely back here again. My players partners were awesome. They were really nice and were showing me where to hit it.
“Everyone here has been great. Tommy [Perfect] is such a great ambassador for this club and he’s always talking about how great this event is. I’ll definitely be back for more next year.”
The year has got off to a great start for Stowe.
Along with his win at Bathurst he has also claimed victories at the Stonehedge & PGA Chaplain Oberon Trainee Pro-Am and the Cronulla Trainee Match.
“I’ve started work with a new coach at the start of the year, who is also my boss now, and we’ve been working really well together. We’re seeing some results nice, which is really nice,” Stowe said.
Home city hopes Dylan Thompson (75) and Perfect (77) finished tied for 24th and outright 31st respectively.
Defending champion Andrew Thompson was also off the pace as he finished with a round of 76.