Eccles records second PGA Tour win

TORQUAY pro golfer Ben Eccles has secured his second Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia victory with a dominant performance, winning the CKB WA PGA Championship today (Sunday, October 15) by five strokes.

Playing at Kalgoorlie, Eccles matched the course record set by Cameron John 12 months ago at the end of day two, and finished just one shot below tying the course record at the end of day four.

The WA PGA Championship victory comes eight years after Eccles, then a 20-year-old amateur, turned a four-shot lead into a three-shot win at the 2015 NSW Open.

Eccles had scores of 68, 63, 66 and 68 to finish 23 under par overall, and said it was an amazing feeling to be on the winner’s list again.

“It was a hard-fought day, I knew I had to sort of keep pushing on.

“There were plenty of good players in the mix, so I was able to do it on the back nine today and I couldn’t be prouder.”

Eccles had bogies on the 3rd and 5th holes but finished strongly, following that with five birdies to come home with a score of -4 for the day.

“There was a couple of nasty pins that I thought I was probably trying to play a little bit too safe [early],” he said.

“There were a couple of three putts, but I felt the putt on the 7th was a little bit of a momentum shift, and then another good par save on the 8th and that bunker shot on the 9th, and I thought ‘Okay, we could be on here’.

“I just kept telling myself to keep hitting the shots and stay in the moment, and I did that.”

He said his 2015 tour win did not feel like eight years ago.

“Sometimes it doesn’t feel like it was me.

“I’m pretty lost for words, to be honest – it’s been quite a long journey since then, a lot of ups and downs… it feels good.”

WA golfer Haydn Barron was outright second at -18, with SA’s Lachlan Barker and New Zealand golfer Bittle tied for third at -15.

For the full leaderboard, head to pga.org.au