IT is a well-known fact that mothers are always right, but if Natalie Evans had taken her mum's advice she wouldn't be the Northern Women's Champion today.

The 24-year-old Pleasington player overcame illness to lift the Northern title at Caldy but has revealed her mum's advice had been to come home!

"I felt rough all week," said Evans, who spent four days, including a practice day on Monday, at the Wirral course.

"I kept ringing my mum in the evenings and she kept telling me to pack it in and come home but I kept saying I'd carry on.

"I'm glad I did now."

After the first round last Tuesday morning Evans, who has a handicap of two, was 20th and knew she had to improve in the afternoon if she was to make the top 16 and qualify.

"I shot 11 over in the first round, it was really bad!" she said. "I shot 84 so I knew I'd have to do a lot better in the afternoon to qualify."

She shot a four-over-par 77 in the afternoon to sneak into the first round of the matchplay stage on Wednesday morning as 14th qualifier.

She knocked out Yorkshire's Katy Dobson in the first round, England Under 21 international Olivia Briggs in the quarter-final and Northumbria's Lisa Ball in the semi.

And in the final on Thursday afternoon, she beat Cheshire's Sue Dye to lift the title for the first time. "I am ecstatic," she said. "It is the biggest tournament I have ever won. It hasn't really sunk in yet but I keep getting flowers and cards from friends and members at the club and I am beginning to realise just how big it is now."

During the four-day tournament the competitors played a total of 99 holes.

"That was tough going," said Evans, a former tennis prodigy who started playing golf after her father, the golf pro Ian Evans, died 10 years ago.

Despite her success at Caldy, Evans has no plans to take her golf any further by turning professional.

"I am quite happy at the moment doing what I am doing," said the twice-St Andrew's Girls champion, who works part-time in B&Q, leaving her free to play golf in the afternoons.

"I don't see me turning pro at all, really, unless it was to teach.

"It's a hard life and this way I have the best of both worlds. If I was a golf pro that is all I would have to rely on. This way I earn a bit of money and then I can practice in the afternoons.

"Well, I am supposed to practice, but I hate it!"