Australian golfer Jess Whitting has claimed an unofficial Ladies European Tour (LET) title after the final round of the Australian Women's Classic was abandoned at Bonville Golf Resort in Coffs Harbour.
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A wild storm that lashed the Coffs Coast on Saturday night dumped a further 80mm of rain on the Bonville golf course, taking the total tally of rainfall to more than 200mm in the past 72 hours.
After an inspection of the course and lengthy deliberation, officials from the Ladies European Tour, WPGA Tour of Australasia and Golf NSW made the decision to cancel the final round.
Whitting, Denmark's Nicole Broch Estrup and Taiwan's Peiying Tsai were declared the joint winners after their rounds of six-under 66 on Saturday.
Winner's status and LET points are not awarded for a one-round event, which made the victory a bittersweet experience for West Australian Whitting, who is trying to play her way onto the world tour.
"It's hard," said the 26-year-old from Perth. "I wanted a chance to go out there and play and prove myself.
"But then also, this is kind of a great outcome too because who knows, I could have gone out there and not played well and moved further down the ranks.
"I'm sure if I had warmed up and sat on the first tee and that whole 18 holes would've been full of nerves, we will never know."
Golf NSW will issue a $500 payment to every player in the field to assist in travel costs,
"This is not how anyone wants to finish a tournament, but we felt that it would be unfair on players to hold them for an extra day with no guarantee of play being able to go ahead," said Golf NSW chief operating officer Graeme Phillipson.
"The staff at Bonville have done everything possible to stage a tournament for us this week but these are situations even out of their control."
Australian Associated Press
