The five women-strong team who will represent Australia in this year’s Women’s PGA Cup in Oregon in October has been decided today after two days of qualifying at Sandhurst Club.
Queenslander Katelyn Must and Victorian Jenna Hunter made sure they would be on the Australian team, both tied at the top of the qualifying at 5-under after the two rounds.
Grace Lennon from Victoria finished in third place, and previous Australian captain Lisa Jean, who coaches at Royal Canberra finished fourth after 36-holes.
Tied for fifth after today’s round, a playoff was needed to determine who would make up the final spot on the team between Sienna Voglis and Jessica Cook.
Heading back to the first tee of the Champions Course at Sandhurst, Cook pulled her tee-shot left, and struggled from there while Voglis held steady to secure the final spot.
Captain of Australia in the first edition of the Women’s PGA Cup in 2019, Lisa Jean was emotional post-round, relieved she will get another chance to represent her country.
“Full of emotion at the moment. I played pretty bad today, and I knew the scores coming up 18,” she said.
Playing in the final group, a par on 18 would have put Jean into the playoff with Cook and Voglis, a bogey or worse and she wouldn’t be on the team.
“I just stood up and smashed driver, had 105-metres slightly into the wind, clubbed up to 9-iron and hit a great shot to about a metre-and-a-half,” she said.
“I was pretty nervous over the putt, and then just finally hit a really good solid putt.
“I seemed to put it all together when it mattered. I guess all those years on the European Tour paid off!”
Jean and her team mates will be looking to lean on that tour experience again in October, with all of this year’s qualifiers having plenty of past playing experience past.
“We’ve all played on tour, yeah we’re club pros now but I think that being ex-tour players and competitive, we might go alright,” said Jean.
“We’ve got a good team this year, Sienna and I are the originals we call ourselves from the first team. Then Katelyn played in the second Cup two years ago, and Grace and Jenna are just great golfers.”
The Women’s PGA Cup will be held at Sunriver Resort in Oregon from October 1-5 later this year, with Australia up against teams from Canada, Great Britain & Ireland, South Africa, Sweden and the United States.
Photo: Lisa Jean, Sienna Voglis, Katelyn Must and Grace Lennon. Absent: Jenna Hunter.