Six teams from across Australia have qualified for the three-round Women’s Scramble at Sanctuary Cove Golf and Country Club with reigning champions Launceston Golf Club again represented, albeit with a different team.

It is a new-look team for Lucindale, too, who finished fourth last year and who qualified for the Championship Final once previously at Twin Waters Golf Club.

Nicole is the sole survivor from the Lucindale team who took part 12 months ago, representing a club of less than 100 members in a town of less than 300 people four hours south-east from Adelaide.

They have ridden the wave of Scramble Championship Finals in the past and would love nothing more than to welcome home a champion team in 2023.

“We’re only a very small town so everyone is very excited for us,” says Nicole.

For Sharon and Michelle, Championship Final qualification is the realisation of a dream more than a decade in the making.

The pair have both played out of Lucindale for close to 30 years and have advanced to Scramble Regional Finals four times in the past.

To now be on the Gold Coast in the plush surrounds of the InterContinental Sanctuary Cove Resort is beyond what they had previously imagined.

“We were ecstatic. I was quite emotional,” Sharon says.

“It’s been a long time that Michelle and I have been playing in this and to get to the Final now is a real privilege.”

For a relative newcomer such as Kerry, The Scramble has given her the same sense of camaraderie that she enjoyed playing team sports.

“I joined about four years ago and for the last three years I’ve been playing fairly regularly,” adds Kerry.

“I came from team sports so for me it was the other way around, golf being an individual sport is quite tricky.

“I do enjoy this format; I just have to remember not to try too hard.”

After advancing to the Regional Final from their local event at their home club, the ladies from Lucindale were joined by Mount Gambier Professional, Craig Davis, for the Regional Final at Blackwood Golf Club.

Davis also played in the Mixed event that afternoon but was told prior to heading back out that he would have at least one team advancing to Sanctuary Cove.

“We actually won on a countback. We had 31 on the back nine and the other team had 35,” Nicole says.

Adds Michelle: “Craig played with us and then had to go out straight after and play in the Mixed that afternoon.

“He’d actually found out that we’d won it but he said to us that it was going to be close.

“We were left to wait and see, which was nice.

“Now we just hope it will be third time lucky!”

Rossdale Golf Club will begin the Women’s Scramble at 8.55am on Tuesday morning with the Lucindale team third off at 9.15am at The Palms golf course.

To follow live scores, visit thescramble.com.au.