Tara Davies beats Lucy Gould

in Welsh women's final


Tara Davies (Holyhead) has won the Welsh women's closed amateur championship for the first time. She beat Lucy Gould (Bargoed) by 3 and 2 in the final at Aberdovey.
Tara won the Welsh girls' title in 2006. Lucy won the Welsh girls title in 2002 and 2003 and returned from America, where she is a student at East Tennessee State University, to see if she could win her national women's title for the first time.
Rhian Wyn Thomas (Vale of Glamorgan), winner of the Welsh women's open amateur stroke-play championship, was the leading qualifier with rounds of 74 and a super 69 for 143, five under the combined par of 2 x 74 (the CSS was 76 and 75).
Rhian was the No 1 seed by the margin of seven strokes, ahead of Gemma Bradbury (Cottrell Park) and Amy Boulden (Maesdu) who both totalled 150. Gemma scored 76 and 74, Amy a pair of 75s.
Tara Davies was the fourth best qualifier on 153 (79-74) and Lucy Gould No 5 with scores of 79 and 76 for 155.
Defending champion Kirsty O'Connor (Nelson) flew home from Ball State University in America for the tournament but lost in the first round of the match-play stages to Hannah Jenkins (Cradoc) at the 19th.
In the semi-finals, Tara beat Gemma by one hole while Lucy beat Rhian, also by one hole.
LATER MATCH-PLAY RESULTS
Quarter-finals
Rhian Wyn Thomas (Vale of Glamorgan) bt Katherine O'Connor (Tadmorton Heath) 4 and 3.
Lucy Gould (Bargoed) bt Stephanie Evans (Vale of Glamorgan) 1 hole.
Tara Davies (Holyhead) bt Natasha Gobey (Rhonnda) 8 and 6.
Gemma Bradbury (Cottrell Park) bt Hannah Jenkins (Cradoc) 2 and 1.
Semi-finals
Davies bt Bradbury 1 hole.
Gould bt Wyn Thomas 1 hole.
Final
Davies bt Gould 3 and 2.
+Image of Tara Davies with the championship trophy by courtesy of the Welsh Golf Union website.