When future golfing nuts scroll the 2025 New South Wales Country Championship leaderboard, it will appear as if Jye Halls won with a leg in the air.
They’ll need to do more research.
Halls, 20, carded a two-under-par 69 at Cowra today to fend off a string of challengers for a three-shot victory – his second in the time-honoured event.
It added to his 2022 triumph at Shoalhaven Heads and put him among the elite to have won it more than once, including legendary Bruce Devlin and other global tour winners, including Lucas Parsons, Brendan Jones and Nathan Green.
But even for the prodigiously talented Mollymook youngster, it didn’t come easily.
Halls had led the field into the second round after a sparkling opening 65.
His opening drive found the trees, and he couldn’t get up-and-down from over the back to immediately give the chasing pack hope.
Another bogey soon followed on the third as Halls “got greedy” in going for the front-right pin and short-sided himself in the bunker.
At the same time, all his rivals had better conquered the brisk early conditions and loomed large.
“It was another pretty rough start, but I knew that I’d warm up when the weather did, and I made a nice 15-foot birdie putt on the fourth to settle the nerves,” Halls said.
That kick-started a run of three more birdies in the next eight holes, but it still wasn’t enough to shake his rivals.
Defending champ Cooper Giddings, of Dubbo, made four birdies in five holes from the eighth to roar up to eight under and a share of the lead.
Six birdies in eight holes from emerging Catalina Club youngster Bill Eppelstun had him within touching distance of the lead, while Goulburn’s Dom Falk also bobbed up momentarily.
But almost as soon as they came, the challengers melted away with some critical bogeys – and even a double in Falk’s case – as the helping wind of day one switched around to make the closing stretch a genuine challenge.
And this is where Halls flourished.
The low amateur at last year’s Ford New South Wales Open showed the lessons he learnt against the world’s best.
And while he didn’t make another birdie, his class in having almost all tap-in pars was the difference in his closing 69 and eight under total.
“Other than those first couple of holes, I actually played really solid all day,” Halls said.
“It definitely got close there for a while, but I kept playing my own game and gave myself a lot of good looks in the last few holes.
“We had live scoring, so I could see all the scores, and I was pretty happy to keep it together and get my hands back on that trophy.
“It’s a great feeling – this event was my first big win in 2022, so it feels really good, especially to get the (NSW Open) spot at The Vintage.”
Related Links:
NSW Country Championships – Gross Leaderboard
NSW Country Championships – Nett Leaderboard
NSW Country Championships – Teams Leaderboard
Giddings had been five under for his round after the 12th hole, but faded with three bogeys in the following four holes as he pushed to catch Halls.
“I got hot there for a while, hit my first decent putt for the day on the 11th for birdie and then lipped out for eagle on the 12th,” Giddings said.
“But I had a couple of three-putts, pushing too hard after that and missed a scrappy up-and-down, too.
“I’d have loved to go back-to-back, but I’ll have to come back and go again next year.”
Epplestun recorded the day’s best round, a fine 67, to share third place at a total of three under alongside Kiama’s Ethan Harvey, who couldn’t recapture his round one flare.
But Eppelstun’s run wasn’t for nothing, as he played a key role alongside Halls in bringing the Inter District Teams Championship to the South Coast for the first time.
The South Coast’s four counting scores of day two – belonging to Eppelstun, Jye Halls, his twin Blake Halls and Ross Oldham – were good enough for a wonderful daily total of two under.
The team, also including Keith Tompsett and Michael Denby, finished at 1 under over the two days, good enough to edge out the ACT by three strokes overall. Central Coast was third, a further 12 strokes back.
“It was good to see young Billy play so well,” Jye Halls said of the 17-year-old.
“He got it to six under at one stage, but then went bogey and double-bogey, but he was good enough to steady and birdie the last hole, and that was really important.
“He was stoked to come third (in the individual competition), but we had dinner as a team on Saturday night and talked about (the District event), so that was brilliant for all of us.”
