Wooster Crowned Australian Mid-Amateur Champion

Illawarra, New South Wales, Australia: Sue Wooster has been crowned the 2024 Australian Mid-Amateur champion.

A stalwart of the Australian women’s team that triumphed in the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC) Senior Championships in 2022 and 2023, Wooster added another title to her collection with a play-off victory at Wollongong Golf Club.

As the national mid-amateur title was held in conjunction with the Srixon NSW Mid-Amateur Championship for the first time it meant a double triumph for Wooster.

Thanks to a closing 73, Wooster posted a 54-hole total of 223 that was matched by Gemma Dooley, a team-mate of hers in last year’s APGC Seniors triumph in Vietnam.

Overnight leader Dooley signed off with a 74 that included a clutch eight-foot par putt on the final green of regulation to force extra-time. Former professional Nadene Gole finished third on 227.

In the play-off, Dooley was forced to take a penalty drop after finding the water with her second shot and was unable to salvage her par. Wooster duly two-putted from the front of the green to confirm her success.

Wooster, a three-time Australian National Senior Amateur champion who also won the APGC Seniors individual title last year, said: “Gemma and I had a really good day. It was neck-and-neck, all the way.

“I wasn’t that nervous in the play-off. I just wanted to get that first putt not too far away, which I did.

“This is my third national Mid-Amateur, I think, and my first NSW Mid-Amateur, so it’s quite exciting. I haven’t been playing much golf lately, so this week bought the form back a bit. It’s been a while between tournaments. That’s one of the reasons I came up.”

As well as being the reigning APGC Women’s Senior Amateur champion, Wooster, 471st in the World Amateur Golf Ranking at the start of the week, has been runner-up in the US Senior Women’s Amateur on three occasions.

In the men’s category at Wollongong, victory went to Colin Mitchell.

For the 48-year-old from the Links Shell Cove, the victory was his first national title after an exemplary amateur career, first in his native Scotland, who he represented in a Home Nations Championship at the senior level, and in his adopted homeland.

Played at Wollongong Golf Club and The Links Shell Cove, the 54-hole Australian Mid-Amateur is for players 30 years and older with handicaps of 12.4 and under for men, or 20.4 for women.