London, England: Nadene Gole heads to Walton Heath Golf Club next week bidding to complete the third triumphant leg of her 2025 Great Britain adventure.
Having won the English Senior Women’s Open at Gerrards Cross a fortnight ago, the Australian ventured north of the border and won the Scottish Senior Women’s Open last week.
Now her attention is turning to the defence of her R&A Women’s Senior Amateur Championship, starting on July 8.
Gole’s latest triumph has seen her rise 10 spots in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) to 104th.
Not only is she the third highest ranked Australian in the standings behind only Reagan Denton (88th) and Jazy Roberts (91st), but also she’s strengthened her position as the world’s top-rated female senior golfer.
For Gole, her success at Eyemouth, where she holed a lengthy putt on the final green to edge American Kathy Hartwiger, was especially poignant given that her mother was born in Scotland.
Gole, who posted a closing 76 for a three-round total of eight-over 227, said: “I had a fairly poor start (to the final round), but I’m thrilled I hung in there. I told my husband: ‘This one’s for Mum’.
“It was a wonderful thing, especially getting out of that wind after holing the putt on 18.”
Trailing England’s Julia Brook by three shots after the first round, Gole’s consistency proved telling, compiling scores of 75 followed by consecutive 76s.
The final round brought the most demanding conditions of the week. While temperatures remained mild, heavy coastal winds made club selection unpredictable and called for accuracy and patience.
Gole was five-over through six holes, before battling back courageously, covering the final 12 holes in two-under.
Hartwiger remained in the hunt with a brilliant up-and-down on the 17th, making a clutch putt to stay tied for the lead heading to the final hole. However, Gole once more showed her mettle, draining a 35-foot birdie putt at the long 18th to add another title to her ever-growing collection.
A member of the Australian line-up that won the inaugural Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation Women’s Senior Team Championship in Malaysia in 2022, in March this year Gole became the eldest player to take part in the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific in Vietnam.
