There was a buzz about Oatlands and a cliffhanger finish justified the excitement of the inaugural Women’s New South Wales Open.
The year was 2006 and as Joanne Mills used local knowledge of her junior course to ultimately salute in a five-hole playoff, the vanquished runner-up was a young mid-North Coast tyro just a year into her professional career by the name of Sarah Kemp.
For Kemp, who had just celebrated her 21st birthday, it began what has become a lifelong love affair.
And this week in Wollongong, the fire burns as brightly as ever.
The bubbly Kemp has experienced much in a career that has been far from linear, but has taken her to the fringe of LPGA Tour victories, into every major championship and even the green and gold of Australia when it finished runner-up in the 2023 International Crown.
Through that all, the Women’s NSW Open called her name.
Amazingly, especially when she walks and talks almost identically to the way she did when a precociously talented teen, Kemp is now 40.
Father Time downs his tools for no one.
Yet Kemp – still rehabbing after December surgery that removed all bar one of the screws inserted into her right leg after a freak golf cart accident in 2024 – believes.
Believes she has good years still ahead on tour.
Believes that the pointy end of her game – approaching and around the greens – is as good as ever it was.
Believes that she can win this week and finally put her state crown into the Kemp trophy cabinet after all these years.
“Last year when I came back to golf after the cart thing, I was in a lot of pain,” she said.
“I’m much better now… although it’s only 10-12 weeks since I had the last surgery. I’m not 100 per cent sure I’ll get 72 holes, to be honest. But I’m learning to manage it, and with John (coach John Serhan) put things in place to adjust if I feel something in my ankle.
“But I love it. I still absolutely love it.
“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.”
It will be a Herculean effort if Kemp can have her name on the Sunday afternoon leaderboard at Wollongong Golf Club.
But one look at her form in the Wednesday pro-am and you would not put it past her.
“It seems like yesterday that Jo beat me at Oatlands, but I’ve been back just about every year and it would be great to win one,” she said with a flash of her trademark pearly whites.
“The tournament wasn’t what it is now (in 2006)… it has come a long way.
“It’s great to see Golf NSW take real ownership of it and drive it to what it is now. To have it on television, to have the LET here… and for all the girls to really be pushing to get their name on it (the winner’s Jan Stephenson Trophy).”
Instructively, Kemp didn’t mention the record $600,000 purse on offer this week.
That’s not to say she wouldn’t mind it in her wallet.
Rather that her mind, remarkably to some perhaps, remains on the pure reasons behind tournament golf.
“I think if I can try to keep up with the younger girls off the tee… that my leg doesn’t play up too much and I hit good hybrids and putt well, there’s no reason I can’t finally get one.”
There’ll be a lot of people – family at home and friends abroad – watching in admiration if she can.
Live: Wollongong Golf Club
Sat 28th – Sun 1st
12:00 pm – 5:00 pm
