SOUTH BEND – Perhaps it was only fitting that a first time winner took home the largest prize in the history of the Symetra Tour at the inaugural Four Winds Invitational at Blackthorn Golf Club Sunday.

Julia Boland of Australia used a steady effort to card a 69 to pick up her first career victory on the tour. She finished one stroke better than Birdie Kim of South Korea and Jenny Suh of Fairfax, Va.

Boland’s four-under par 212 was capped by a final round that was bogey free and had three birdies.

She said it was a career-changing day.

“Probably after 24 hours I’ll be able to give you a more reflected answer about what this means,” Boland said. “But I’m just really grateful to be here. I mean it gives me the opportunity to pursue my dreams.”

Brland started the final round tied for second, three strokes behind Sara Hurwitch.

Hurwitch birdied the first hole to move to five-under par, but five bogeys on the day left her tied for 11^th at even par.

Boland capped her winning performance with a one-foot putt on 18 that she said was longer than it looked.

“That last putt was terribly long, trust me,” she said. “It was absolutely terrifying to be honest with you. I’ve never had such a difficult putt. I guess it was like a foot, but I don’t even know at this point. I asked my caddie (Brittney Oliver) if she saw my hands shaking. I thought it was going to be hard to put the ball back down after marking it. It definitely wasn’t as easy as hopefully I made it look like.”

Shasta Averyhardt of Flint and Paolo Moreno of Columbia rounded out the top five as they tied for fourth at 214. They were also the biggest movers of the final round going four-under par to move up from 16^th place.

 

Four Winds Invitational

At Blackthorn Golf Club

Par 72

Top 10

Julia Boland 212

Birdie Kim 213

Jenny Suh 213

Shasta Averyhardt 214

Paola Moreno 214

Brianna Do 215

Misun Cho 215

Joanna Coe 215

Kristie Smith 215

Mi Hyang Lee 215