Vernon River — Debby Beck gave her younger sister a little bit of incentive to play a strong back nine Sunday at the P.E.I. Amateur Golf Championship.
Having just won the senior women’s title, Beck shared the news with Sherry White as she completed the front nine at Avondale Golf Club in Vernon River.
“Going into today we kind of jokingly said, ‘lets make it a sister day, lets have two wins here,’” Beck recalled. “I went out and said, ‘I did my part, now it was up to her.’ So she did.”
White said she was “thrilled” for her sister and wanted to fulfill her part of the deal.
“It was a little bit of incentive to work hard on the back nine.”
Beck, who is two years older than her sister, won by two strokes over Myrna Miller while White won by four strokes over Fiona Thompson.
“It is pretty cool,” Beck said of the two sisters winning amateur crowns at the same time. “I doubt that it ever happened before.”
Beck, White and oldest sister, pro Nancy White, grew up playing the game together.
“I wasn’t allowed to start playing until I was 12, so I was watching my older sisters both play and couldn’t wait until I finally turned 12 and could golf,” White said.
The two are total opposite when it comes to looking at the scoreboard. White knows where she stands as she plays, Beck doesn’t.
“I make it a point not to know,” Beck explained. “If there’s any part of my game that I have to work on it’s my mental game.”
When she completed her round, Beck turned in her scorecard and went to change her shoes. She came back and looked at the board and someone said congratulations.
“I said ‘I won,’” she said. “I did not have any idea I had won when we finished.”
Beck shot an 81 on the opening day and 84 Sunday.
“I was very happy with my round Saturday. I felt I left a lot of shots out there today, especially on the green,” she said Sunday. “I managed to put together a pretty good back nine.”
She shot a 45 on the front, but recovered with a 39 on the back nine.
So what was the difference?
“I changed my golf ball,” she said. “Sometimes you get superstitious . . . So much of this game is mental that it could be just something that minor.”
White was consistent during the two-day event, scoring 39 on the back nine Sunday after tallying 40 on the front nine both days and the back Saturday.
“My short game was really good,” said White, now a six-time champion of the amateur. “I don’t hit the ball real far, so I am at bit of a disadvantage against younger players, but my short game definitely showed up all weekend.”
