BRENDAN Rowse and Jenny Stephenson conquered the course to claim A Grade Mildura Open titles.
Both players held the lead following Saturday’s first round and would go on the claim overall honours across 36 holes at Mildura Golf Resort.
Following a first round 85 off the stick, defending women’s champion Stephenson led the seeded group ahead of Lisa Garoich (88), Salli Fox (91) and Jodene Tuau (94) into Sunday.
The Broken Hill local carded 80 in her second round to be a clear winner with 165, ahead of Garioch (174), Fox (175), Tuau (185) and Marg Lampard (188).
It marks back-to-back titles for Stephenson at Mildura.
It was much tighter in the men’s competition as Rowse and Coomealla’s Matt Bottomley, who finished third at the previous week’s Merbein Open, and Brandan Rowse both carded rounds of 74 on Saturday, with Jacob Slimmon and Cameron Stewart each scoring 75 in a tight seeded group.
There was plenty of change in the order on Sunday, however Rowse’s consistency in scoring 74 again was enough to earn him top honours a total of 148.
Jarrad Stokker came home with a bullet with an even par 72 on Sunday to go with his first round of 78, finishing two strokes shy of Rowse alongside Ash Whitehouse, who claimed the Merbein Open the previous week.
Greg Rhodes and Bottomley (both 152) rounded out the top five.
The junior top two was a reverse of the Merbein Open results with Joel Doherty finishing ahead of Cooper Mitchell.
Doherty finished on 160 after rounds 82 and 78, with Mitchell scoring 89 and 79 to total 168 strokes.
Open events resume at Coomealla on April 26-27, followed by Robinvale (May 18), Riverside (May 24-25), Red Cliffs (May 31-June 1) and Broken Hill (July 19-20), before the MDGA District Championships on September 13-14.
