Zunic erases pain in emotional win
Champ finds composure after losing lead to claim title with fine finish
EMOTIONAL Jordan Zunic was in tears at his 84year-old grandma’s funeral a week ago before airmailing her a trophy prayer from the 18th green at the Isuzu Queensland Open yesterday.
The Wollongong pro admitted he stood over his 3.5m putt to win with a single thought, “this one’s for her”, to will the ball to the cup for his most loyal fan.
Zunic (67-68-65-73) had lost a six-shot lead before his cool surfaced with a birdie putt on the 17th and his fine par save from the trees on the final hole to win by one at blustery Brisbane Golf Club.
“Funnily enough, it was almost like Happy Gilmore in the movie saying ‘Grandma’ over the ball because I was saying to myself ‘I gotta get this for her’,” Zunic said.
“Grandma (Anna) used to call me every day from the other side of the world wherever I was playing golf and everyone at her nursing home got the updates.
“When I was in Scotland last month and found out her health was fading, she told me she’d hang on and she did until I got home … she was gone a week later.”
Zunic felt he was celebrating her life with his fourth pro win and a two-year replenishment of his playing rights on the local tour just weeks before the exemptions ran out from his 2016 NZ Open win.
He will fly to Spain today with confidence he can conquer the six-round qualifying school to make the European Tour after drawing deep when it mattered on a tense Sunday.
“The putter went cold, I wasn’t hitting fairways and the wind getting up turned them into the most difficult conditions of the week but I just kept saying ‘hang in’ and the putter came good,” Zunic said after his two-over-par final round.
“I’m going to take this win to Europe as such a bonus and hopefully win my playing card.”
The trophy could almost have been sent to the engravers when he birdied the opening two holes for a six-shot lead but in a blink he was wobbling with three short missed putts of 1.5m or less.
When he found the water on the tough par three 13th and had a sixth bogey with more water on the 16th, it was all tied up at 10-under-par with playing partner Steven Jeffress and Rhein Gibson.
Web.com Tour pro Gibson (68) will curse leaving his 4m putt for birdie short on the 18th while Jeffress (70) lost his chance when he drove into the trees for bogey on the 17th after some fine golf.
Western Australian Brody Martin had seven birdies and an eagle, on the par five 12th, to smash the course record with a brilliant eight-under 63 to surge to joint eighth.