COTTESLOE Golf Club amateur Curtis Luck (19) is the 2016 WA Open champion after winning the annual four-day competition at WA Golf Club in Yokine on Monday .
“It means the world to me to win my State Open, and as an amateur it’s even better,” Luck, who finished second last year, said.
“To get on top of a professional field as an amateur, this would definitely be my best win.”
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READ NOWHe entered the Open’s final round with a three-shot lead, but bogeyed a hole before settling down for the remaining holes.
“I had kind of collected my coolness by the 5th, and I hit a good shot in there and made a birdie, so I just kept the foot lightly on the accelerator and it paid off,” Luck said.
He ended up two shots under par in the final round, while his total for the tournament was 19-under.
The score allowed him to claim the title by two shots from fellow amateur Travis Smyth.
Luck is the third amateur in 25 years to win the WA Open and said his amateur-winner predecessors Stephen Leaney (1991) and Oliver Goss (2012) inspired him.
“I was thinking about Stephen Leaney, and if I can follow it up with a second at the US Open in the next few years; I would be pretty happy,” Luck said.
He would not say when he may turn professional for the PGA Tour of Australasia, other than he had been “thinking about it”, in addition to possibly doing some overseas tour schools before any change in his player status.