The long 12-year faith Stephen Blyth placed is his son Adam is finally paying off with Adam Blyth capturing a second Australasian Tour title in winning the NSW Open in Sydney.
However it was not all plain sailing for the 35-year old Blyth after taking a third hole double bogey and the dropping four shots in succession from the fifth to eighth holes before playing the inner half in a sizzling five under par and with the Kel Nagle Trophy by three strokes with a round of 71 for a 23-under par tally on the Stonecutters Ridge course.
“It’s been a magical week. I enjoyed it. I played probably the best golf of my life,” said Blyth.
“To share it with my girlfriend and dad is just super special.”
Adam Blyth holds aloft the Kel Nagle trophy after his victory in the NSW Open. (Photo – PGA of Australia).
It was a hard fought victory for Blyth who after opening with two birdies went onto drop six shots on the front-9.
After starting with a four shot lead, Blyth started the back-9 tied with four players. He went onto make five birdies including one at the last to secure the $72,000 pay cheque.
“Take away the front-9 today and I played beautifully and putted so well,” added Blyth, who steadied the ship with a birdie on the 10th.
“I was thinking I would probably still be in the lead or at least very close. I was thinking it was lucky that I had that four shot lead overnight.
“Something clicked on the back-9, I just started thinking about slowing things down, and pegging it back one shot at a time. I was able to just stay in the moment and I played beautiful,” added Blyth who also had a close call at the Oates Vic Open. He led by three into the final round before a 78 saw him plummet to tied 19th.
“I thought it was going to be another Vic Open out there. Those terrible thoughts, like what am I going to do tonight. But I was ahead of myself and I just told myself to relax.”
His relaxation paid dividends, Blyth and his father, walked up the 18th with a two shot lead, the player / caddy duo, having dreamed about that moment for the past 12 years.
“Dad and I play 9 holes every afternoon. He doesn’t play, he caddies for me, so we talk about it, we dream about it,” added Blyth.
“He has put some much time, effort and money into my career to make this a reality.
“That walk up the last was just surreal and something I will never forget.”
The NSW Open is Blyth’s second victory of the season after he also won the South Pacific Open in September.
Blyth becomes the first player since Adam Scott in 2013 to win twice on the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia in a season. Scott won the Australian PGA Championship and Australian Masters; he went onto win the Order of Merit.
After this win, Blyth has overtaken Jason Scrivener on the Order of Merit and now sits third, $89,109 behind leader Matthew Griffin.
Young guns Jarryd Felton and Queensland Open Champion Brett Coletta, who is still an amateur, finished runner-up after firing rounds of 5-under the card.
Finishing on 19-under the card and tied fourth were Rhein Gibson and Wade Ormsby, who fired 8-under in the final round in his first tournament back since a neck injured sidelined him in May.
Two shots further back were Stephen Leaney and Rory Bourke while Lucas Herbert, Jake Higginbottom, Tae Koh, Chris Gaunt, Andrew Dodt and Peter Wilson rounded out the top-10 on 16-under the card.
The ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia will now head to Royal Sydney for the Emirates Australian Open.
Headlined by World Number 5 Jordan Spieth and World Number 6 Adam Scott the tournament tees off on Thursday 17 November.
