Josh Robards reeled in the field with a brilliant final round, and Justice Bosio only needed a steady final 18 to win South Australian Junior Amateur titles at Kooyonga today.

Both Bosio, a year 11 student from the Sunshine Coast, and Robards, from Newcastle, collected their first state titles.

Bosio, 15, dominated the field in the girls’ championship, winning by eight shots and shooting two-under par for the 54 holes for her first big victory, and holding off her pursuers after starting with a comfortable lead.

“I was a little nervous driving to the golf course, but I was hitting on the range and hitting it pretty good and that made me more confident,’’ she said. “‘First tee nerves’, everyone gets that. But then I birdied the first hole, so the nerves were pretty much gone from then on. ‘Hit fairways, hit greens and make some putts’ after that.”

The Tullawong State High School student had two bogeys and two birdies in her even-par final round.

A member of Queensland’s junior interstate team for the past two years, she plays out of Caboolture Golf Club, a club made famous for having produced Rod Pampling, whom she has met “a couple of times” (not to mention playing foursomes with Marge Pampling, Rod’s mother).

Robards, 17, shot a fine third-round 68 with six birdies to erase a two-shot deficit that he conceded to Royal Melbourne’s Jack Holland at the start of the day, ending up at four-under par for a two-shot win.

Tied at three-under par overall with Joondalup’s Tom Addy through nine holes of the final round, he took a steady approach. “I said to myself ‘go through the back nine and try not to make any mistakes, give yourself the best chance possible’,’’ he said. “And that’s how it went. One birdie, eight pars and that was good enough.”

Robards took the lead outright when Addy bogeyed the 15th, then effectively nailed the title with a six-metre, birdie putt at the par-five 16th. “It was straight up the hill,” he said. “I looked at it and I thought ‘I don’t know if this is going left or going right’. So I went straight at it. It was straight! That’s when I said to myself ‘it’s gonna be alright’.”

Robards, a year 12 student at Kotara High School, plays out of Newcastle Golf Club, and has been in the Hunter golf academy as well as the New South Wales junior team that won the Interstate Series in Queensland last year.

At just 170 centimetres, he has added length to his game in recent times but admits he could always do with more, although he is improving. “It’s not so many more good shots,’’ he said. “Just less of the bad ones.’’

Thirteen-year-old Shyla Singh, from Southport Golf Club, had a hole-in-one at the par-three seventh hole.

Both Robards and Bosio are remaining in Adelaide for the South Australian Junior Masters at Royal Adelaide later this week.

LEADERBOARDS