Port Kembla professional Cherie Alison will have a shot at cracking a top-10 finish at the $125,000 women’s NSW Golf Open for the first time this weekend.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Alison has contested the Open half a dozen times over a 15-year professional career and is yet to finish better than 10 places behind the winner.
She returns to Sydney’s Oatlands Golf Club on Thursday for an afternoon pro-am event before kicking off the major tournament on Friday.
Alison is under no illusions a top-10 placing will be easy as she goes up against some of the best professional female golfers from around the globe.
The line-up includes the likes of defending Open champion Joanna Klatten from France, eight-time LPGA tour winner Rachel Hetherington, and fellow in-form Aussie chances Sarah Kemp, Stacey Keating, Rebecca Artis, and Nikki Garrett.
Alison will use Thursday’s pro-am round as her only practice hit on the Oatlands course before teeing off in the Open.
‘‘Everyone else is up there [Sydney] already ... I work full-time, so preparing for tournaments, I don’t get as much time as I used to,’’ Alison said.
‘‘The pro-ams, I’ve played all right in those, but I’ve had a couple of bad weeks recently at the Australian Open and Australian Masters.
‘‘The courses are set up so differently.
‘‘But I had a really good prep session yesterday [Tuesday], so I’m feeling a lot better about it.’’
Alison has already attacked the Australian Open and Australian Masters this season but failed to make the cut at either event.
She did, however, win a pro-am event in New Zealand in November and is feeling confident ahead of this weekend’s event.
‘‘This week is a weaker field [than the Australian Open and Masters],’’ Alison said.
‘‘Some of the overseas girls have gone home.
‘‘I did win a pro-am event which was the first event on our ALPG schedule in New Zealand in November.
‘‘That was my first tournament back after eight months off – I won by five shots, which was nice.
‘‘I’m still striking the ball well which was nice to see yesterday,’’ she said.
Alison won’t be the Illawarra’s sole representative at Oatlands for the Open.
Shellharbour professional Katy Jarochowicz will line up for her home state event on Friday.
