From Tony Durkin
GOLD FOR GLENN: Glenn Kelly has won his second Headland Gold Mug – 15 years after winning his first. A ‘gun’ junior who was a member of the Headland Junior Pennant team for five years, Glenn abandoned his golfing career when he turned 18, left school and started an apprenticeship as a plasterer. Three years ago when the golfing bug returned, he re-joined the club, started on a handicap of 13 – ten more than when he ‘retired’ – and gradually found the form that he left behind a decade earlier. And it all came together on Saturday when his 68 nett was good enough to win the Gold Mug, despite finishing with successive bogeys. Until then he was just one over par, with a single bogey and 15 pars. But his resurrected form does not end there – Glenn has also qualified for the Mid-Week Gold Medal, to be contested on Wednesday, and has also nominated for a return to Pennants next season.
SUSIE’S MEDAL: Susie Fenton has beaten a field comprising 20 Monthly Medal winners from both the Thursday and Saturday competitions to win the 2018 Headland Medals of Medals. Susie, who won the B Grade Monthly Medal in September, returned 71 nett in Thursday’s decider to beat Jane Boaler and Christina Claxton on a countback. Sharon Thomas, who won an unbelievable seven Monthly Medals during the year, finished ninth after a triple bogey on 17. But the star of the day was relative newcomer Christine Hall, who won C Grade with an outstanding score of 66 nett and clinched the Rabbits Cup, which is contested by those ladies who do not qualify for the Medal of Medals. For Christine, a 2014 SWING graduate who has helped mentor fellow newcomers over the past two years, not only was it her best round of golf and her first win, but the first sporting trophy the recently-retired health worker has ever won. And the reason for her best-ever round – ‘playing with some lovely ladies who helped me relax’.
TIGHT FINISH: Golf Manager Clay Williams and Club Captain James Kidd were thankful for the assistance of the Golf MiScore recording system last Wednesday when countbacks were needed to decide three of the top four placings in the closely-contested men’s Fourball Best Ball competition. Modern technology, via the MiScore system, automatically resolves tied scores on a countback which, firstly, monitors scores on the back nine, then the final six holes and the final three holes. If the scores are still locked, the countback then goes hole by hole, backwards from the 18th, until a result is determined. On Wednesday a single point separated the top six placegetters, while 17 pairs were just four points away. Winners, who prevailed on a countback, were Gary Clotz and Richard Senior with 49 points, tipping out Paul Henricks and Mark Swift. However, the winners won comfortably under the countback system, with 26 points on the back nine compared to 23 from the runners-up. Naturally, their scores were the opposite on the front nine. In the closest Fourball Best Ball Stableford event of the year, four teams finished on 48 points, four on 47, four on 46 and 17 pairs had 45 points, with two missing out in the rundown by virtue of the countback.
Judy Farmer, Jenny Pirini, Vicki Maynard, Carmel Visser and Leanne Ptak
BRONZE VICTORY: Headland Ladies Captain, Vicki Maynard, has led her team to victory in the Bronze Division of the annual Rose Bowl, played at Noosa Golf Club last Monday. Headland was one of eight Sunshine Coast district clubs represented in two divisions – Silver and Bronze – and the team of Vicki Maynard, Leanne Ptak, Carmel Viser, Jenny Pirini and Judy Farmer scored an aggregate 159 points to beat Maroochy River on a countback. Consistency was their key – the highest individual score was 35 points, the lowest 27. Maroochy River won the Silver Division.
REVERSAL OF FORTUNES: Those Headland members currently in the golfing doldrums may need to confer with newcomer Ian Scobie on the actual realities of how quickly fortunes can change. Last Saturday week Ian, who joined Headland just on 12 months ago, had a paltry 28 points in the Single Stableford event and wondered where his much-loved game was headed. Three days later, playing in the Tuesday Veteran’s competition, he fired 84 from his 20 handicap, registered 44 stableford points and won the competition in a canter. Then, on Saturday in the Monthly Mug, he backed up with 86 for a nett 67 to win the B Grade Mug. A former executive with an oil company, Ian and his wife Margaret lived in called numerous overseas countries home for 20 years and although he played golf socially, he never joined a club and never had a ‘real’ handicap prior to returning to Australia midway through last year. Obviously, Ian has never had a more fluctuating or rewarding week of golf.
RECIPROCAL WIN: Patron Simon Whittle, who has been a member of the club almost since its birth, has scored a win at one of Headland’s reciprocal clubs in Victoria. On a golfing holiday with wife Sandy, Simon played The Sands course in Torquay last Sunday week and blitzed the field with 43 points in the Single Stableford event. Once a regular member of Headland Pennant teams and a former four handicapper, Simon estimates it has been at least 15 years since he last scored more than 40 points in a round, so he was quite chuffed with the score which included an eagle on the par-five ninth hole. The golfing holiday, over eight weeks, is headed for South Australia.
JOSIE WINS: Headland’s perennial Ladies Champion, Josie Ryan has been part of a thrilling win by Australia in the inaugural Women’s Senior Trans-Tasman Cup played at The Grange Golf Club in Adelaide. The Australian team of Kim Burke, Pauline Jeffery, Jacqui Morgan, Helen Pascoe, Sue Wooster and Josie beat New Zealand 6.5 matches to 5.5 matches to claim the Cup. Australia took a one-point lead into day two after the foursomes and fourball matches on day one, and with the tenaciously-fought singles halved 3-all, the overnight lead by the Aussies was enough to seal the win. Josie’s record was a win, draw and a loss. The event is now to be held every two years, rotating between Australia and New Zealand.
Josie Ryan with the Trans-Tasman Cup
VW SCRAMBLE: Entries close on Thursday for the VW Scramble, to be played at Headland on Friday. Only 15 teams have entered the four-person Ambrose, but 108 players are needed to participate for Headland to be eligible to send two qualifying teams to the Sunshine Coast regional final. The event is a Mixed Invitational, which means two Headland non-members are able to join two compulsory Headland members in a team. Go to https://www.vwscramble.com.au/event#/competition/1646420/info for further details.
WEEKLY WINNERS:
Tuesday, Vets, Single Stableford, Caloundra host day, Ladies (34 players) – Helen Fraser (37 points), Diane Molineux (37; Men (75 players) – A Grade, Ian Scobie (44), Huki Matenga (41); B Grade – Ray Moody (39), Phil Martin (39); C Grade – Terry Murphy (42), Les Haywood (39). Single Stableford, Ladies (48 players), Kristen Griffiths (38), Coline Colton (38), Susan Stratford (38); Men (64 players), Rodney Hutchison (41), Andrew Beck (40), Bill Boucaut (38).
Wednesday, Men, Fourball Best Ball Stableford (194 players) – Gary Clotz and Richard Senior (49 points), Paul Henricks and Mark Swift (49), Tim Nunan and Wayne Phair (48), Alexander Eden and Daniel Harding (48).
Thursday, Ladies, Medal of Medals and Rabbits Cup (88 players) – A Grade, Christina Claxton (71 nett), Josie Ryan (73), Helen Fraser (73); B Grade, Mary Young (67), Monica Knowles (69), Susie Fenton (71); C Grade, Christine Hall (66), Jane Boaler (71), Cheryl Kitson (71). Medal of Medals winner, Susie Fenton; Rabbits Cup winner, Christine Hall.
Men, Fourball Best Ball Stableford (80 players) – Alan Stratford and Malcolm Woods (50 points), Greg Doolan and David Mayes (49), Graeme Denovan and Rod O’Leary (49).
Saturday, Ladies, Single Stableford, (30 players) – Kirsten Kaergaard (37 points), Doreen Davidson (37), Heather Lum (37). Men, Monthly Mug (213 players) – A Grade, Barry Newton (68 nett), Glenn Kelly (69), Tony Killey (69), Matt Hetherington (71); Gross Barry Newton (75); B Grade, Ian Scobie (67), Morgan Winston (68), John Keating (68), Mike Hardy (69); Gross, Mike Hardy (83); C Grade, Tom Burnett (65), Andrew Murray (68), Tim Nunan (68), Leo Schumacher (68); Gross, Andrew Murray (90). Gold Mug, Glenn Kelly.
Sunday, Medley Single Stableford (12 players) – Dominic Geeves (37 points), Shaun Truter-Golightly (34). Quarter finals of Medley Fourball Best Ball Match Play Championship – Jay and Trevor Gourlay beat Jaydon McDowell and Michael Goodluck 3 up; Alex Dwyer and Lachlan Moffat beat Bob Ingham and Jenny Ingham 3up; Mick Kinnear and Mick Kelsey beat Brendan Duncan and Mathew Duncan 2 up; Dean Jones and Matt Prince beat Burgess Stephenson and Warren Selvage 2up.
