A week at home was enough to bring out the best in Tasmanian golf prodigy Ryan Thomas.
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After moving to Melbourne a year ago to further his career, the 17-year-old provided a good indication of how far he has come by becoming the first Tasmanian boy to win the Tamar Valley Junior Cup.
He followed his Greens Beach success with a second-placed finish at the Tasmanian Junior Masters at Riverside last weekend, finishing three shots behind Victorian Mitchell Crabbe with 13-under after four rounds.
The results came as an ideal start to a year which will see him finish grade 12 at Rowville Sports Academy, compete as a junior for the final time and consider an offer to take his trade to the US.
“To get back home and play was really good,” the former Prospect High School student said.
“I was around my family and friends, I had my girlfriend back home so they were all really supportive and it’s just crazy to feel that again.
“As soon as I got back home I went up to my old golf club and there was lots of support there … just a lot of support is what I found going back home and it helped me to produce the best golf that I could.”
Thomas’ win at Greens Beach broke a stretch of mainland winners dating back 13 years, and came two years after fellow Launceston talent Zahara Lemon became the first Tasmanian to win the girls’ event.
Thomas had led after day one in the 2018 instalment before finishing fifth, but wasn’t going to settle for anything other than a win in his final year of eligibility and finished two shots clear of Prospect Vale teammate Ronan Filgate.
“Heading into Tamar Valley I played really solid and so did Ronan.
“He’s one of the Tassie boys and I’ve played a few interstate series with him, he played really solid and I was head to head against him.
“I came back down with expectation that the scoring wasn’t going to be as low as what it ended up being.
“There was a good field of players - there wasn’t a high number of players in the field but the top 10 were really strong players so I still had to produce as high level of golf as I could ... it was a good feeling.”
Since moving to Melbourne Thomas has played pennants at Yarra Yarra Golf Club – one of the eight Melbourne Sandbelt courses.
Facing tougher and more consistent competition more often has done him no end of good on the golf course, and he has had to grow as a person and as a student since moving away.
Nevertheless, Thomas has relished every opportunity to return home.
“A lot of things changed for me [when I moved] and I was able to compare what I needed to do - that was sort of the main point of where I grew in my game, and how smart I got on the golf course,” Thomas said.
“In Tassie when I went away I had to travel to go to bigger events - there’s only a couple of events in Tassie you can play that are bigger sized events for ranking points.
“I found it was hard going away and having to travel and having that extra pressure because you have to spend X amount of money putting into hotels and stuff - being over here is a lot easier and takers a fair bit off pressure off when I play.”
April will see Thomas represent Tasmania at the Australian boys’ amateur championship in Queensland, and two months later he will celebrate his 18th birthday.
Over the course of the year he will weigh up his next move, with an offer to play at an American college among the options.
“Obviously that’s a choice I’ll have to make closer to the end of this year,” he said.
“I don’t know if it’s one I will make - it’s already been hard enough moving away from home and it’s going to be even harder moving to another country so we’ll see what happens.
“If that’s what’s going to be, that’s what it’s going to be - I’ve just got to keep my options open and see what I can do.
“I’m trying not to shut anything down at the moment, I’m trying to keep everything open and allow for it to be what it’s going to be.
“You can be a professional golfer or a golf professional - you can either be coaching golf or playing golf is how it is and I want to be playing golf - that’s why I made the move to Melbourne.
“I’m just trying to make as big advantages as young as I can to try and get ahead of what I need to do.”