Although Dom Falk has only played golf competitively for four years, his inexperience didn't stop him from taking out the hotly contested Yowani Open in Canberra last weekend.
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In a field of 165 golfers, some of whom had won international competitions, Falk went in without expecting much, and surprised himself with the quality of his play.
"[I didn't expect] much really," Falk said.
"I had a pretty good week the week before at the St Michael's Cup and blew it in the last few holes, but on the weekend I went in with no expectations and came out alright.
"There's always pretty good players that go to those sort of things. There was a bloke there that played in the World Junior Championship over in the states and he'd won that.
"So you see those blokes there and think 'I've got no hope', but I obviously had a good couple of days and got it done."
It was only after the first day, which Falk ended leading two under par, that he started to seriously believe that he could win the tournament.
"I was leading overnight, so I thought about that a lot obviously," Falk said.
"On Sunday, when I went out there I didn't want to throw it all away. I was two under after nine holes, and then that was when I did think about it a little bit and made a couple of loose bogeys."
Despite some "pretty terrible" putting, Falk managed to halt his slide on the second day and hold on for a one-shot victory.
The key, he said, was not to overthink while he was playing and "just get on with it."
"Just trying to remain calm was the biggest thing," he said.
"That's probably one of my biggest things, I don't really think too much about it, because when I do, that's when it goes downhill real quick."
Following his victory at Yowani, Falk has his eye on several upcoming tournaments.
He will next take part in the Massey Park Open, which is scheduled for Saturday, June 15. That will be followed up by a berth at a tournament in Norfolk Island, and then he intends to try and defend his title at the Goulburn Golf Club Championships.
Given his recent run of form, few would bet against Falk in the coming weeks.
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