One of many Australia’s main amateurs, Kade Webber has plans to deal with the Australasian Tour faculty subsequent April.
WHEN golf-mad Kade Webber was simply 12, he was devastated when event officers knocked again his supply to caddie within the 2015 NSW Open at his dwelling course of Stonecutters Ridge.
They believed the Grade 6 pupil wouldn’t be capable of carry a heavy tour bag for 18 holes, not to mention for the 72 holes of a serious event.
However they hadn’t counted on the braveness and persistence of younger Kade, and when journeyman skilled Jason King discovered himself in need of a bagman, membership professional Steve Gannon persuaded officers to present the 135cm Kade an opportunity.
The pair made the minimize, making certain they might play the total 4 days, testing the stamina of the teenager, however rewarding him with an expertise he’ll possible always remember.
Recalling the second, Webber, now 20, stated that after 36 holes he was undecided King had carried out sufficient to qualify for the weekend rounds.
“It was a sizzling day and after the second spherical I went swimming with my mates and obtained actually sunburnt,” he stated. “Lugging that huge bag round with sunburnt shoulders was actually robust, however I didn’t say something.”
Webber’s come a great distance since then, now rated one among NSW’s high amateurs and already considering a profession as an expert golfer.
In April he shot rounds of 68, 71 and 68 to win the Alice Springs Open by three strokes – his second straight win in an occasion that at all times attracts a robust area of amateurs looking for World Rating factors.
His victory adopted a string of constant performances that noticed Webber end second in February’s Avondale Beginner, high 10 on this yr’s Keperra Bowl and Harmony Cup, and ninth within the Malaysian Beginner Open simply earlier than Christmas.
He was runner-up in three straight NextGen tournaments final October and November, and received that circuit’s Order of Benefit honours in 2024.
Kade Webber, winner of the Alice Springs Open.
Webber visited the UK final yr to check his recreation in opposition to the world’s finest amateurs within the British and Scottish Beginner Championships.
Although he missed the minimize in each occasions he discovered quite a bit.
“It was an actual eye-opener,” he stated. “There have been 270-odd gamers, and all of them have been superb.
“It was so robust – not simply on the golf course, however travelling from place to position, the language points, lugging 25kg luggage, taxis – every little thing’s so costly,” he stated.
Regardless of all that he would have gone again this yr however couldn’t increase the mandatory funds. As a substitute he’ll stay in Australia and contest each occasion he can.
A member at Stonecutters Ridge since he took up the sport as a seven-year-old, Webber moved to Harmony final yr on a scholarship, and stated he relished the prospect to work exhausting on his recreation with skilled gamers and coaches.
He performed A grade pennants with Harmony this yr, going by way of the season undefeated. That was till the ultimate, which Harmony misplaced to NSW 4-3, Webber dropping the deciding match one- down, after lacking brief putts on the ultimate two greens.
Away from the course, Webber works along with his dad Mark, a landscaper.
He describes him as ‘an actual robust man’ and tells me how, on the morning we spoke, his father had slashed his calf on a tree department, an ambulance taking him to hospital for an in a single day keep.
“As he left with the paramedics he known as out to me to maintain on working,” Webber stated.
Certainly one of Webber’s proudest achievements is profitable the 2023 NSW Vardon Trophy, awarded to the newbie with the bottom common rating over a sequence of designated occasions.
He performed 27 qualifying rounds with a mean of 71.62, tipping out Harmony’s Coby Carruthers, who performed 32 occasions for a mean of 71.73.
Previous winners of the NSW Vardon embody Cameron Davis, Jordan Zunic, Brendan Jones, Brett Ogle, Paul Gow and 13-time winner, Tony Gresham of Pennant Hills.
Claiming he’s turning into ‘bored’ with newbie occasions, Webber plans to deal with Q College subsequent April, hoping to safe a card for the Australasian Tour.
