Playing in the afternoon groups, Vasquez and Anthony Choat both shot 8-under 64 to finish one stroke clear of Jay Mackenzie (65) and another women’s PGA Professional in Emma Ash (65).

There has been an influx of women PGA Professionals and WPGA Members playing the Queensland swing of the adidas PGA Pro-Am Series this season, Vasquez the first woman to have a win since Grace Lennon’s joint victory at the Eastwood Pro-Am in Melbourne in 2019.

“Monkey off my back. Finally got a win,” said Vasquez, who was fourth at the Clermont Pro-Am two weeks ago.

“I knew it was coming. I’ve been playing well the last few months, but I just haven’t had everything click in one round. Today it happened.”

It was something of a drought-breaker, too, for Choat, the New South Welshman enjoying his first pro-am success since the Stuart Appleby Cohuna Pro-Am last September.

“I’ve been chopping and changing, trying to get better the last few years and things are starting to stabilise,” said Choat.

“To actually be out there in contention, to be really way under par and to be thinking about only making birdies and trying to shoot 10, 11, whatever under, it’s really, really good.

“I feel really good about my game and have for a while, but it’s nice to actually shoot a good one and get a result.”

HOW THE WINNING ROUNDS UNFOLDED

Playing in the group ahead of Vasquez, Choat went backwards before going forward, making bogey at his opening hole, the par-4 fifth.

He rebounded with birdies at seven and eight before unleashing on the Biloela back nine, peeling off six birdies and three pars for a back nine of 6-under 30.

His ninth and final birdie came at the par-3 second, coming up just short of a birdie on his final hole that would have secured an outright win.

Vasquez had to come up with an up-and-down of her own to match Choat’s score of 8-under.

Unlike Choat, Vasquez was fast out of the blocks with birdie at her first hole, the par-5 fourth.

She added a second at the short par-3 eighth and then eagled the par-5 ninth to head to the 10th tee 4-under par.

There were birdies at 12, 14, 17 and 18 before three closing pars to round out a bogey-free 64.

WHAT THE WINNERS SAID

Danni Vasquez: “I knew because it was my last par 5 of the day, I knew I had to do something but I didn’t put too much pressure on myself. I knew the chip that I had was tough, but I knew if I just landed it on the fringe, it would roll up to a hole-able length. Ended up holing my five-footer which I was very happy about.”

Anthony Choat: “It was an amazing day. I know I’ve been hitting the ball. I haven’t been scoring great, but I knew it couldn’t be too far away. When the putter started to get hot, I was just like, don’t watch a leaderboard. Let’s go make as many birdies as we can.”

LEADERBOARD RUNDOWN
T1        Anthony Choat            64
T1        Danni Vasquez             64
T3        Jay Mackenzie              65
T3        Emma Ash                   65
T5        Bradley Kivimets          66
T5        Dean Jamieson            66
T5        Christopher Wood       66
T5        Harrison Wills               66
T5        William Bruyeres          66

NEXT UP

One of the marquee tournaments of the season starts on Wednesday with the $60,000 Ian Weigh Toyota Rockhampton Pro-Am at Rockhampton Golf Club followed by the inaugural Maryborough Pro-Am next Monday.