Golf: Surprise national title for Young

Sheila Young now holds the Sue Bunt Salver as the best of the New Zealand Women's Home Links players. Photo/Stuart Munro

Wanganui golfer Sheila Young has claimed a national title after an injury-forced 18-month spell from the game.

A regular in the weekly Tawhero Golf Club nine-hole competition, Young emerged best of more than 1400 entrants in the Sue Bunt Salver at the 2014 New Zealand Women's Home Links Competition.

Entrants in the annual Home Links event have a three-month window to lodge three score cards with the best two being forwarded to their regional associations.

Young's two best were sent to the Manawatu-Wanganui Association for ratification and, while she was a clear winner of the regional competitors, to her surprise she also took out national honours in the Srixon-sponsored Sue Bunt Salver.

Her best two included a 29 nett on the 36-par women's track at Tawhero.

"I couldn't believe it," Young said yesterday. "I've only just come back to the game after 18 months off following knee surgery. It's a first for me. I've never won anything really, let alone a national title. Even though I slipped from a 16 handicap to a 19, I did play a pretty good round to include in my best three cards," she said.

Meanwhile, Fellow Manawatu-Wanganui contenders Joy Stantiall and Cindy Gordon finished fourth in the national Home Links Nancy MacCormick Memorial Foursomes competition. Both play at the Hawkestone Golf Club in Rangitikei.