Opening elementary
Keating’s one cool customer
CRESSY golfer Stacey Keating overcame a disastrous start yesterday to stay in the hunt for her second Vic Open title.
Keating was upbeat after recovering from bogey-double bogey to be just three shots off the lead in eighth.
“I’ll probably take that after a very rough start,” she said after her round at Thirteenth Beach Golf Links.
“I didn’t settle in well and I was three over after two holes, so to get under (the card), I was very happy.”
Starting on the par-5 10th, Keating three-putted to slip to one over, then missed the green on the par-4 11th and scored a double bogey.
“It wasn’t good at all,” Keating said. “It came from nowhere on the first. I hit a wedge to 9m and three-putted it and the next I missed the green and three-putted it.
“But on the next hole I made a good up and down for par and I was thinking, ‘Gee, this could be a nightmare’.
“I actually felt OK. I wasn’t too worked up about it and I said to (caddie) Darren (Peters), ‘I’m going to make two birdies before the turn and I got three so that was OK’.”
Keating finished with four birdies on the Creek Course to finish one-under.
She blamed nerves for her disappointing start.
“I said to myself after the first two holes, ‘Stace, it’s a 72hole tournament, that’s only two holes. Big deal. You’re going to do stupid things’.”
Favourite Su Oh (even) and England’s Laura Davies (five over) also battled in the wind.