Break from playing no obstacle to success

She's happily tucked the title into her golf bag but leading Bay of Plenty golfer Zoe Brake's greatest satisfaction after her comeback win in Matamata at the weekend was in sticking it to the doubters.
Ten months after she quit New Zealand Golf's high-performance academy to join the Navy, 19-year-old Brake, pictured, was back in the winner's circle, taking out the 54-hole Ruth Middleton tournament in Matamata on Sunday in a playoff with Auckland's Jesse Hamilton.
The former international has played just two competitive rounds since last September, both at the New Zealand Women's Open at Pegasus near Christchurch where she missed the cut by plenty.
But, having secured a rare weekend away from the Devonport Naval Base and with just two refresher lessons from Tauranga-based coach Jay Carter under her belt, Brake showed immaculate poise, particularly off the tee, to silence the doubters.
"It's not the biggest tournament I've won but it felt like it and hopefully it'll show people that I'm not a spent force; that although I left the game young I've still got plenty of good years ahead of me," a defiant Brake said last night.
Brake joined the Navy last September, disillusioned with golf after missing the four-strong New Zealand's women's team to contest the Espirito Santo Trophy in Buenos Aires and keen to get started on a career away from the golf course.
After three months of basic training where all of the usual creature comforts were denied, she has qualified as a hydrographics survey operator. She only got the weekend off to play in the strokeplay tournament because she filled in doing rostered duties at the base for a colleague. Brake had a lesson with Carter two weeks ago, where she estimates she hit a total of 50 balls, then saw her coach again on Friday. And spent the weekend flushing it.
"There were a few nerves on the first couple of holes because I hadn't picked up the clubs for a long time, but when you've been playing for 12 years you don't forget."
Brake had rounds of 74 and 75 on Saturday to lie fourth, two shots behind Hamilton, and came home on Sunday with an even-par 72 on the back of unerring accuracy off the tee, where she missed just a couple of fairways and hit 15 of 18 greens in regulation. "Tee to green was really good but my putting wasn't all that great, the rounds could have been a lot better."
Brake's final round tied her with a fading Hamilton and she capitalised on her momentum with par on the first playoff hole to beat her young Auckland rival, who missed a short putt and made bogey.
Brake is re-enthused about her game but realistic about how much time she'll have to terrorise the fairways more regularly. "I'm not even going to make plans while I'm so busy in the Navy. It'd be good to play more but I've got age on my side."