Mullumbimby’s Adam Kasa had double the reasons to celebrate on Sunday.
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Not only was he crowned Tamworth Golf Club’s Easter Open champion, but in the process claimed his first NSW Vardon Trophy event victory, much to his delight.
“It’s my first Vardon so I’m pretty stoked,” Kasa said on his way home on Sunday night.
He has been in the mix before.
“Last year I was in the final group with Logan (Toms) but couldn’t pull off the win,” the 33-year-old said.
His second Easter open, he felt the biggest difference this year was confidence, adding that having partner Bianca with him was really good.
The overnight leader after shooting a first round 69 on Saturday, Kasa had a couple of shaky moments on Sunday but managed a 73 for a three shot win over Pymble’s Paul Foate.
“On the back nine I bogied 12, 13 and 14 so I started getting in my head a little bit,” Kasa said.
But he bounced back on the 15th and was pretty solid from then on.
“It was just good to get the job done,” he said.
Foate made his move on Sunday matching Kasa’s first day effort with a one-under par 69. Coupled with a first round 76 it gave him 145 for the 36 holes.
Justin Kellett was the best of the local contingent. The Longyard golfer finished just a shot off Foate on 146 after firing rounds of 75 and 71.
Kasa is set to return to the region next month for the NSW open pre-qualifying tournament at Moree in the first week of May, and plans to return to Tamworth next Easter.
“Hopefully, if i’m still amateur, I can come back and defend my trophy,” he said.
He is just back from New Zealand where he just missed the shortened cut off of 50 in the rain-affected New Zealand Strokeplay Championships.
Numbers for the open event were slightly down, but presiding over his last Easter tournament, retiring Tamworth Golf Club pro Scott Rowarth remarked about the quality of the field.
Twenty of the 26 starters were off a handicap of under-4 and 12 of those were under 2.
Getting underway on Wednesday, the five-day tournament concluded on Sunday and saw a capacity 185 golfers hit the fairways on Easter Saturday for the Vardon and accompanying events.
