A golfer from Burnham-On-Sea is celebrating after playing a leading role on the winning team at a prestigious European tournament.
Patience Rhodes of Burnham & Berrow Golf Club, pictured, has helped Team Europe win their first-ever Patsy Hankins Trophy after defeating Asia-Pacific by 19 points to 13 at La Manga Golf Resort in Murcia, Spain.
Patience from Burnham and Lottie Woad of Farnham played some fantastic golf over the three days, with Lottie winning three and drawing one of her five matches, while Patience won three of her four games, as Team Europe won for the first time since its inception in 2016.
Patience especially had a tournament to remember, as she landed her second-ever hole-in-one from 131 yards on the 12th hole of the South Course!
Patience explained: “The wind was pretty gusty and I hit a wedge. I saw it pitch and it was pretty close but I looked away because we were in a foursome and someone reacted. I didn’t realise it went in!”
Patience (back row, far left) and Lottie Woad of Farnham (back row, third from right) helped Team Europe win the Patsy Hankins Trophy
On her experience with Team Europe, Patience said: “I’m so happy to have been selected for this, it’s been an unreal experience. We’ve made lots of new friendships and it’s incredible to be part of history and win this event. Everyone is so happy and the atmosphere is amazing.”
On the first day of the tournament (Thursday), Patience’s hole-in-one helped the duo to beat Mizuki Hashimoto & Nanako Inagaki of Japan 4&3, before Lottie won on the last hole alongside Ireland’s Beth Coulter against Ting-Hsuan Huang (Chinese Taipei) and Minsol Kim (South Korea).
On Friday, Patience and Lottie were beaten in the foursomes on the final hole by Japan’s Rina Tatematsu and Nanako Inagaki before bouncing back in the afternoon fourballs, as Patience and Beth Coulter beat Ting-Hsuan Huang and Mizuki Hashimoto on the final hole, and Woad won alongside Sweden’s Meja Ortengren 3&2 versus Avani Prashanth (India) and Shannon Tan (Singapore).
Patience admitted: “We were two-up and the wind was up and it made it difficult to judge some distances, the other girls just holed some long birdie putts so it was tough but it’s all a great learning experience. In my other game with Beth, we were 10-under overall. I had two eagles and she had one while we also had two birdies each. I landed one of my eagle putts from 15 feet on the 18th to get the winning point!”
Saturday’s final day saw Europe leading 11-9 at the start of play, with Patience taking on New Zealand’s Fiona Xu and Lottie facing Huang. Patience won 3&2 while Lottie went down the last, halving her contest, as Europe won 19-13. Lottie added: “It was a great team effort and everyone is really happy. It’s been a lot of fun playing with friends and we played some good golf.”
Photography credit: EGA
