After three gruelling days of top-tier amateur golf braving both sun and rain, the inaugural LLD International Amateur Championship, May 30 to June 1, comes to a close at Laguna National Golf & Country Club.
In all, 63 players arrived from Malaysia, Thailand, Pakistan, Australia, South Korea, Indonesia, India, Hong Kong, Philippines, Japan, and Myanmar, to join hosts Singapore in competing in the nation’s first truly mixed golf junior championship, happening on the back of the 42nd Queen Sirikit Cup.
Split into Open and Junior (under 15-years-old) divisions for boys and girls respectively, the tournament was won by 19-year-old Quinnton Croker from Brisbane, Australia, and 15-year-old Elaine Widjaja from Indonesia.
The Open Division Boys’ winner has never won a tournament outside of Australia and was ecstatic about his wire-to-wire victory.
“This is my first time being out of Australia playing an event, it’s pretty good to come away with a win. I’ve won a couple of events in Australia, but this is definitely one of the biggest ones I’ve won,” said Croker
With scores of 67, 66, and 74, Croker was never troubled from the start. His 207 total was 12 strokes better than local Singaporean player, Daryl Low, who held off strong challenges from Randy Bintang from Indonesia and Polakrit Pawichai from Thailand to finish in a credible second place.
“I played alright recently, came in here playing pretty well, swung it good, putt it well, the greens are similar to home so it didn’t feel too unnatural, happened to play some really good golf and the scores showed that,” he admitted.
The girl’s division was won by 15-year-old Elaine Widjaja of Indonesia
For the diminutive Widjaja, it was also her first foray out of home and she did well to win it.
“This is my first tournament outside Indonesia, and I feel very awesome to be able to represent my country and win a tournament,” said the 2-handicap player who only picked up the game five years back.
With scores of 73, 67, and 72, the Indonesia girl shrugged off her nearest challenger, Pimpisa Sisutham of Thailand, who was at her heels the entire way, particularly near the end where she carded four birdies in the back nine to stay close, including at the final par 4, 18th hole. In the end, a bogey five was enough for Widjaja to close with a one-stroke victory, sealing a famous win at the first LLD International Amateur Championship.
“Congratulations to all the winners, the course was quite challenging and you all played very very well,” said Lyn Yeo, founder of LLD Sports Development and Management, who is also the organiser of this event.
“Thank you for making the inaugural LLD International Amateur Championship a success,” she concluded.
