WA golf pro Brady Watt takes one-stroke win during 50th Spalding Park Open

The 50th Mitchell and Brown Spalding Park Open went down to the wire on the weekend as Perth’s Brady Watt took out the win by one-stroke.

In total, 78 golfing professionals travelled to Geraldton for the prestigious competition, with the total prize purse at $80,000.

Over the three days, the Adidas PGA Pro-Am Series and the PGA Legends Tour were held with competitors travelling from all over the country.

Watt turned heads early in the competition with an albatross on the Friday, nabbing a par-5 in two on the ninth hole.

The Perth competitor led at the ends of day one and two, but the win came right down to the very last hole.

New professional golfer Jordan Doull made his mark in the competition after beginning the final round seven shots behind the leader, but came within one stroke of the lead.

Doull finished with three birdies and zero bogeys as he chased Watt for the win in the final round, but ultimately ended tied with WA’s Daniel Fox with a score of 205.

While the pair were chasing, Watt finished with birdies at the 15 and 16, taking a one-stroke win on his final hole with a score of 204.

After the win, Watt said that the nerves came in late, but he was focused on his game.

“It’s always hard to win wire-to-wire,” Watt told PGA Australia.

“I felt a little nervous this morning but how the course was set-up was kind of tricky, so you’ve got to hang in there.

“I didn’t look at the live scoring too much. I looked after nine and saw that a few guys were going quite well so just tried to have a couple more birdies coming home, checked it on the last and managed to get it done.”

Winning the Spalding Park Open was especially meaningful for Watt, with the WA local competing at the Geraldton course since he was young.

“I’ve been coming here since I was 15, back when Sean McKay was winning, been here a bunch,” he said.

“It’s all starting to come back to where it can be so it’s exciting to get a win, especially at a place I’ve been coming since I was a junior.”

Alongside the Pro-Am tour event, the club ran the Legends Pro-Am competition for the first time, seeing winners from the past 50 years return to play alongside some of the country’s top golfers.

PGA Legend Chris Taylor claimed victory during the Legends Open after taking a four-stroke lead early.

Taylor increased his advantage on the final day with two early birdies, taking home a comfortable three-stroke win over Jason Norris and Brendan Chant.

The success of the event comes off the back of the Spalding Park Open being named the WAPG Tournament of the Year back in March.