FITTING FINALE: Headland’s clubhouse erupted in continuous cheers and applause on Friday night when, after exactly 52 weeks, the famed Joker Jackpot was finally won. But the stirring ovation was not because the long wait was over – members and guests were cheering the winner, popular member and former Golf Manager, Brent Dalby, who pocketed a record $7900. With just on 350 members in the draw and more than 400 people packed into the clubhouse Brent, who is suffering a medical complaint and is using crutches, slowly made his way to the central area when his number was electronically drawn. Then, with steely determination, he pointed one of his crutches at the unturned card he had eyed off for the past 10 weeks, believing it to be the lone Joker in the display cabinet. While the resultant cheer was close to deafening, the theatre surrounding the occasion was awesome and further emphasised the wonderful camaraderie that epitomises our great club. A Headland member for three decades and Golf Manager for nine years until retiring a little more than two years ago, Brent and his wife Jo will use the unexpected financial bonus to cover on-going medical expenses and help bring their son and his family home from England for a long-awaited visit.
JAKE’S NOTICE: Newcomer Jake Crowther has warmed up for the Headland Men’s Championships – to be played over the weekends of May 18-19 and 26-27 – with a superb four-under par 68 in Wednesday’s Mid-Week Medal. A member at Nambour since he was a youngster and a three-time Club Champion, Jake – who plays off plus three – joined Headland late last year primarily to play Pennants when his junior club could not field an A Grade team. But because the recent university graduate works at Nambour Golf Club on Wednesdays and Saturdays, he has had scant opportunity to play in Headland competitions – until Wednesday that is, when he lit up the extremely soggy course. His round included six birdies and a ‘pretty good’ double-bogey seven on the second. Jake tugged his drive into the trees, could not find his ball and had to reload. With a star-studded line-up to contest the upcoming championships Jake, who plays off a handicap of plus three, looms as a major contender.
MATE CHALLENGE: Close mates Dennis Mikolic, Graham Smith and Matt Fisher don’t always play in the same group, but they always keep tabs on each other’s scores. And that was the case when Matt arrived for an afternoon start in Saturday’s Monthly Mug to the news that Dennis had come in with 65 nett, and Graham 66. Unsure whether he would play because of the forecast rain, the very impressive scores from his mates was just the challenge the former PGA Pro needed. And although his nett 68 didn’t quite give him bragging rights among his mates, his one-under par round 71 – four birdies, three bogeys – was the best gross score in the field. For Dennis, his best round (74) at Headland by five shots (one birdie, three bogies) won him his second Monthly Mug in the three years he has been a member, and the victory over Graham (75) who finished second, reversed the positions of five weeks earlier when they quinellered an A Grade Single Stableford event. Dennis, whose handicap had ballooned from nine to 14 to start the year, is now down to his lowest-ever mark of eight following what he described as a round in which he could not recall a poor shot.
WINNING WEEK: While Kate Wilkie doesn’t particularly regard herself as a mud lark, she confides she has gleaned over recent weeks how to best play the very wet Headland course. And it has paid handsome dividends – in the past couple of months she has scored three wins, two seconds and a third in club competitions with victory in Thursday’s Monthly Medal the cream of the crop. Kate, whose handicap is 15, has been using driver off the deck instead of three wood on the soggy fairways, has put away her 60-degree wedge and, because of the lack of run, has been taking at least one club extra. While she concedes her 79 nett was not ‘the greatest score’, it was good enough to win her tenth Monthly Medal in the dozen years she has been a Headland member. Mouna Humzy (76) and Tove Larsen (76) won the B Grade and C Grade Medals respectively.
BACK IN FORM: Following a patch of recent indifferent form – some of which actually overflowed into the start of Sunday’s round – Matt Hetherington is hoping his golf is back to where it was when he claimed last year’s B Grade Championship. Matt won Sunday’s Medley Monthly Medal with 68 nett – 80 off the bat – and is keen to keep that form going over the next month so he can go back-to-back in an event that means much to him. But he is eager to eclipse the kind of start he had on Sunday – double bogey, par, birdie, double bogey – and is looking for more consistency in his game. However, Sunday’s round was his second best for the year, behind a 79 two months ago, and good enough to win Sunday’s Medal by two shots. Joshua Holbrook, the 15-year-old son of four-marker Jamie, won the Junior Medal returning both the best nett and gross scores.
ACE DRIVER: In anyone’s language, half a century is a long time. In golfing terms, for 79-year-old Peter Bucknell, it is the difference between a seven iron and a driver. Peter, a former decade-long Headland member who spends his retirement days living between Buderim and his home town of Inverell, scored his second ace in 50 years in Wednesday’s Mid-Week Medal round when he hit driver to the 160- metre par-three 14th. Back in 1969, much younger and much fitter, he struck a sweet seven iron the same distance for his first hole in one at a par-three course on the Gold Coast which no longer exists. Despite once playing off 14, Peter (handicap 27) still loves his golf although he concedes lack of distance is now an issue. But helped by the low score on the 14th, which was sandwiched between two sevens, he managed a more-than-respectable nett 74 in Wednesday’s extremely tough conditions.
OXLEY OBJECTIVE: Recent new member and Headland A Grade Pennant player, Jamie Hill, has won his way through to the 36-hole final of the Oxley Golf Club Matchplay Championships in Brisbane next weekend. A member at Oxley since he was a junior, Jamie maintained his membership with the express objective of winning an honour board event in 2019. He finished fourth in the recent Club Championships but on Saturday beat the Champion, former PGA Pro Russell Smith, 4&3 to advance to next weekend’s Matchplay final. And he took excellent form into the semi-final – on Friday he shot a four-under par 68 in a club event at Oxley in his warm-up round.
WEEKLY WINNERS:
Monday, Veterans Single Stableford, Ladies (26 players) – Marg Smith (34 points), Pam Andrews (34), Heather Lum (33); Men (99 players) – A Grade, David Werner (39 points), Huki Matenga (34), Bruce Reid (34); B Grade, Bruce Horton (40), Jock McLaughlin (38), Wayne Chugg (37); C Grade, Lawrence Munro (39); Robert Pixley (39), Trevor Gladwin (38).
Tuesday, Single Par, Ladies (27 players) – Christina Claxton (square), Ali Lomond (-1), Kate Wilkie (-3); Men (50 players) – Graham Myers (+3), Nigel Morrison (+3), Geoff Sawyer (+1).
Wednesday, Men, Mid-Week Medal (172 players) – A Grade, Ciaran Fenton (69 nett), Sam Howse (69), James Kidd (71), Gross – Jake Crowther (68); B Grade, Shane Jefferson (66), Shaun Sigley (67), John Sims (69), Gross – Shaun Sigley (83); C Grade, Gerry Brown (73), Roly Hoy (73), Steve Eggins (74), Gross – Gerry Brown (96).
Thursday, Ladies, Monthly Medal (72 players) – A Grade, Kate Wilkie (79 nett), Dom Paice (79), Helen Fraser (83), Gross – Dom Paice (86); B Grade, Mouna Humzy (76), Katrina Watts (80), Kathryn Tayles (80), Gross – Mouna Humzy (102); C Grade, Tove Larsen (76), Wendy Derrick (78), Trish Murphy (79), Gross – Tove Larsen (109). Men, Single Stableford (82 players) – Andrew Beck (39 points), Mark Garcia (38), Gary Rugless (37).
Saturday, Men, Monthly Mug (146 players) – A Grade, Dennis Mikolic (65 nett), Graham Smith (66), Matt Fisher (68), Matt Prince (69), Gross – Matt Fisher (71); B Grade, Paul Garth (68), Gary Savill (68), Matt Macaulay (68), Greg Stray (70), Gross – Matt Macaulay (82); C Grade, Mark Gersbach (72), Ted Banaszczyk (72), Ed Hoey (76), David Parker (76); Gross – Mark Gersbach (92).
Sunday, Medley Monthly Medal (55 players) – Matt Hetherington (68 nett), Darryl Kong (70), Tony McDonough (71); Junior Monthly Medal – Joshua Holbrook (74 nett).
