Kade McBride has put on a final round clinic in conditions which can only be described as a ‘heavy ten’ to claim the prestigious Geoff King Motors North Coast Open by a shot at Coffs Harbour Golf Club today.
The Queenslander was all but faultless on the rain sodden layout this afternoon, carding an incredible closing round six under par 64, for a two-round ten-under-par total.
“I got it going,” McBride grinned post round. “I knew I had to get off to a good start, and my goal was to play as aggressively as I could and do a good job of it.
And a good job of it he did. After starting two shots behind leader Corey Lamb and Amelia Mehmet- Grohn McBride went on a rampage, birdieing the 1st, 4th, 5th, 7th 8th and 9th to turn in just 28 shots. The effort good enough to flip the two shot deficit into a three shot lead.
Final Scores
He wasn’t done, however, and when he binned his seventh birdie for the day on the 10th, the lead was five.
McBride’s only blemish of the day came, uncharacteristically, on the 17th. An ill-timed double bogey looked for a period like it had played Lamb back into the contest, but McBride took it in his stride, and on the next hole, his last, binned his eighth birdie for the day in a grandstand finish.
“I started with an aggressive game plan and I knew I had to just keep going with it. It was a bit of a hiccup on 17, but I was being aggressive, so wasn’t that unhappy with it.”
“With the conditions as they are, you know you have to stay calm, I felt really comfortable out there today and that helps a lot.”
“There are so many variables out there in these conditions and you just have to take the attitude whatever happens, happens.”
Mc Bride said he was unaware of the scores unfolding around him, and with a shotgun start and everybody on course at the one time, was he at all tempted to have a look over his shoulder at what was going on in the group behind.
“I wasn’t bothered about what was going on there at all,” he grinned.” I was hoping they were looking up at me.”
Mc Bride’s name now joins a select band of champions of the North Coast Open which includes 2021 winner Anthony Quayle, and several legends of the sport in Australia and around the globe including, Kel Nagle, Gary Player, Bill Dunk and Norman Von Nida.
