In a fascinating clash of styles which saw youthful power up against a wealth of experience, with Gaudion’s ball-striking taking on Mapley’s deft short-game, it turned into a see-saw battle until the teenager upped the ante down the closing stretch, with the wind having got up significantly throughout the 36-hole showdown, and eventually came out on top.
Early signs during the morning round were that the defending champion would simply be too strong as Gaudion quickly established a 3 up lead, but Mapley does not have seven titles of her own for no good reason.
She calmly took it shot by shot, hole by hole, and by the 13th green she was standing over an inviting birdie putt to get back to all-square.
That attempt just slipped by on the low side, but Gaudion got into a spot on bother on the long 14th and they were level once more.
Only briefly, though.
Two good hits from the youngster on her favourite hole, the 15th, had her just short of the green on the par five and while Mapley scared the hole with an excellent putt from an awkward spot on the bank to the right-hand side, Gaudion secured her birdie to edge ahead once more.
That lead was doubled on the 16th as another fine drive was matched by her approach shot before she could afford to lag her first putt up to hole side with Mapley unable to make a par.
The morning round finished with a couple of halves to keep Gaudion 2 up at lunch.
There was no change in the score after two holes of the afternoon session, but by the time they reached the sixth hole for the second time in the day, Mapley had turned her deficit into a 1 up lead by winning three on the bounce as her solid play paid dividends while Gaudion suffered a lapse in concentration.
The long 24th played into the champion’s hands, though, and she was not behind for long.
Having immediately got back to all-square, she made a delicate up-and-down from being perched up on top of the front bunker at the par-three seventh to take the lead once more and that was doubled before they reached the turn with Mapley conceding the 27th.
There were still some twists to come, though.
Having hit a super drive into the wind on 11, about 80 yards ahead of her opponent, Gaudion leaked her approach to the right hand side and that eventually led to a double bogey, which halved her lead.
Both players encountered difficulties on the 12th, which was halved in fives, before Mapley got back to all-square with five to play as she played the 13th the way it was intended while Gaudion pulled her tee shot and it resulted in a five.
Having been pegged back, the teenager knew she had to make the most of the back-to-back par fives and she did just that.
It was her putting rather than her distance that won the 14th, getting down in two from the back of the green for the win, before her length off the tee seemingly proved advantageous on the next.
However, her well-struck fairway-wood second shot ended up in the green-side bunker before Mapley hit a fine third onto the green, albeit a good distance from the hole.
Gaudion splashed out of the sand well and it was obvious she would make nothing worse than a par, but her opponent under-hit her first putt – probably believing that it was nigh-on impossible to leave the downhill, downwind attempt 5ft short – and the tester for par then failed to drop.
To Mapley’s credit, she then made a 10-footer to keep the match alive on the next green, but the congratulatory handshake came on the 17th green when Gaudion coaxed her par putt to hole-side with Mapley still having 4ft for a five.
‘I started off well, two over this morning, and I started well after lunch, but then it went a bit ragged – I went 1 down because I lost three holes on the trot,’ Gaudion said.
‘Then I regained focus.’
She added that while she is looking forward to the Channel Islands Championship final in Jersey in August, there might be some logistical issue to sort out as she is heading to college in the USA this summer.
‘It could be that I’m going to have to fly straight from Jersey to America, so I might have to take all my stuff with me.’
Tilly Hamilton, meanwhile, won the second division Coutanche-Darling Trophy, beating Hermione Surcombe 5 & 3 in the final.
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