From Tony Durkin 

ODYSSEY WINS: Wielding his new Odyssey blade putter, Brian Callaghan scorched around the Headland course in 73 strokes on Saturday to score plus five in the Single Par event, and win A Grade by two strokes. Although the 42-year-old surveyor estimates he had seven birdie putts fall short of the hole, his 28 putts with the new blade was encouraging and aided his one-over par 73, his third best score as a 10-year Headland member. Brian’s impressive card showed 13 pars, two birdies and three bogeys – at thee, nine and 11. His previous best score was a two-under par 70 in a fourball 18 months ago, while he has also scored a par round and twice had one-over before Saturday’s round. Religiously teeing off with the first group each Saturday morning, six-handicapper Brian estimates his round on Saturday was the best golf he has played in almost 12 months. C Graders John Christmas and Barry Euston also scored plus five.

FOOTY FEVER: Sponsors for Saturday’s Monthly Medal (Ladies) and Men’s Monthly Mug, Club Professional Adam Norlander, KVM Traffic Services owners Ken and Vicki Maynard and club stalwarts Jenene and Justin Nicholson, have urged golfers to dress in their favourite footy colours. Popular bar staff member Jenene, who is currently recovering from further surgery, has had a lengthy recent battle with cancer and the idea of the footy colours is to create more awareness on Fight Cancer, Footy Colours Day. 

EYE CATCHERS: Club Captain James Kidd has been a member of Headland’s match committee for six years and cannot recall, in that time, the number of eye-catching scores as those returned in Wednesday’s Medley Single Stableford. In a field of 202, 75 golfers played to their handicap or better, with 28 players registering scores in the 40s. And even more astonishing was the winning score on the day – 48 points, which included a wipe, from 26-marker Anthony Otago. Darren Padgett (handicap 23) signed for 45, while Malcolm McColm (16) and Adriaan Moorcroft (13) scored 44 points. Luckily for Anthony, a fly-in, fly-out miner, he wiped the 13th – where he eventually had an eight – otherwise he feared he may have been lynched by his fellow members. A Headland member since 2013, Anthony has only recently started to take the game more seriously and says he actually practised before Wednesday’s outstanding round, in which he signed for four four-pointers and seven three-pointers in his round of 86. 

ROBYN’S WEEK: Robyn Boreham has just experienced a week of golf she will long remember – and one which most club golfers would envy. Her run of success started last Thursday week in the Headland Ladies Open when Robyn returned both the best gross and nett scores in the Division Two. Although out of the prize list, Robyn and her partner Tony Kelleher finished 27th in the field of 48 pairs contesting Headland’s Patron’s Day, and on Monday she won Division One nett and Senior Women’s gross at the Nambour Ladies Open. Then, to cap off one of the most fruitful weeks of golf in her life, Robyn scored 41 points to take A Grade honours in the Ladies’ Single Stableford at Headland on Thursday. Her gross round of 88 is her second best in 10 years as a Headland member and the 22 points on the back nine another second best. 

PILLOW BITERS: Back in the late-80s when a group of Headland golfers checked in to Royal Pines for a Gold Coast golfing weekend, they were advised that for the expediency of resort management, the group needed a collective name. Group comedian/joker/larrikin Roscoe King decided on Pillow Biters, and for three decades – at home in the club each Wednesday and on their annual trips – the band of mates have been identified by that somewhat-peculiar moniker. But on Wednesday three members inherited the tag PBT (Pillow Biting Triplets) when Malcolm McColm (44 points), Peter Raymond (43) and Paul Burnett (42) trifectered the B Grade Single Stableford event. Malcolm, a Headland member for almost 40 years and a former Club President and Captain, says his 44 points – 80 gross – is his best round in decades, and he described it as ‘very satisfying indeed’. His consistent round included nine bogeys, eight pars and a birdie from his 16 handicap, with his final 11 holes just three over the card. And, being in the final group of the day, he allowed good mate Pete Raymond to luxuriate in some premature clubhouse adulation.

SUE ACES WIN: It goes without saying that Sue Stratford was excited – ecstatic even – to score her first hole-in-one on the fifth at Headland on Thursday. But the septuagenarian, who did not take up golf until she was 65, was able to contain her exhilaration and prevailed to score 39 Stableford points, and win the C Grade Single Stableford event. Helped by her six points on the fifth – one of those holes where she says she rarely finds the green – Sue was off to an outstanding start having 20 points on her card after seven holes, despite wiping the second. Convinced by her husband Alan to take up golf when he joined Headland from Horton Park seven years ago, Sue has already won two Monthly Medals, which will take pride of place beside her hole-in-one ball, which Club Champion Josie Ryan – playing in the group behind – made sure she retained. 

DEL GELLS: Del Whittaker isn’t one to reminiscence on past golf scores, but she seriously doubts she has ever had 26 points on a single nine before Saturday. Del, a former gun tennis player from Toowoomba, has been playing at Headland for 23 years and a few years ago returned a score of 66 nett in a Monthly Medal, which equates to one shot less than her fabulous score of 43 points in Saturday’s Singe Stableford. And while the overall score was outstanding, her first nine – 42 shots and 26 points – was quite something from the 27 handicapper. Her only dissatisfaction was that her handicap in recent times had slipped out from her all-time low of 19, and she hopes Saturday’s card of eight three-pointers and a four-point birdies on the fifth might mean better times ahead. 

SMART DECISION: In the weeks before Gary Woodland won the US Open in June, USC Mechanical Engineering student Adriaan Moorcroft researched what irons might suit his game. He settled on Wilson Staff Iron Blades, and on the morning of the second day of the Open, ordered a set through the Headland Prop Shop and has been using them for just on two months, with satisfying results. His gross score of 77 in Wednesday’s Medley Single Stableford event garnered him 44 points, both scores the best in the rekindled golfing career of the 22-year-old. Adriaan played his junior golf in his native South Africa and moved to South Australia in 2011, playing very little until the family made the Sunshine Coast their home and he joined Headland in February. And despite conceding his choice of irons had undoubtedly been the correct decision, he credits the advice of his wife for Wednesday’s win in A Grade. “She told me to ‘go out, relax, and have some fun’, and that’s what I did,” he said. 

NEW FACES: Two new board members, elected via the recently-introduced electronic voting system, will be inducted at Tuesday evening’s Annual General Meeting of Headland Golf Club. Tony Kelleher (Men’s Director of Golf) and Phil Cooper (House Director) were elected to their positions and will join Jon Welch (President) as the only changes to the incoming board. Jon and Phil have previously served on the Headland board. More than half the eligible Headland membership voted for the contested positions, the strongest support for board position ballots in recent memory. On behalf of all Headland members, HH wishes retiring and hard-working board members John Alsbury (President) James Kidd (Men’s Director of Golf) and Wayne Hutchison (House Director) a relaxing and less stressful new lifestyle. 

LIVING CHOICE CLASSIC: Headland’s annual Living Choice Classic, to be played next Sunday, Monday and Tuesday (September 8-10) has attracted a field of just on 180, with visitors comprising almost 60 per cent of the entrants. A strong contingent is from the Gold Coast, while others are attending from as far away as Young in NSW and Calliope in Central Queensland. Sunday’s opening event will be a Medley Fourball Best Ball Stableford, while a Single Stableford will be played on Monday and Tuesday, with scores also contributing to a two-day eclectic competition. More than $5,500 in prizes – sponsored by Living Choice and sourced from Headland Pro Shop – will be distributed during Tuesday night’s presentation dinner. 

FOURSOMES AHEAD: Entries close on Wednesday (September 4) for Headland’s annual Men’s Foursomes Championships, while entries for the Ladies’ Championships close on Thursday, September 12. The respective events will be played on Saturday September 14 (men) and Thursday September 19 for ladies. Sponsored by Zero Termite and Pest (Mick Kinnear), the men’s Foursomes will be played over 36 holes and the ladies – sponsored by Guide Financial (Marc Venter and Brad Wall) – is a 27-hole event. Entries are being taken at https://www.jotform.com/HeadlandGolfClub/2019ladiesfoursomes and https://www.jotform.com/HeadlandGolfClub/2019mensfoursomes respectively.

CHRISTINA REPRESENTS: Headland’s Christina Claxton will represent the Sunshine Coast and Burnett District Women’s matchplay team for the prestigious 2019 Meg Nunn Salver to be played over five days at Southport Golf Club from Friday (September 8). Seven district ladies’ teams from throughout Queensland will contest the team’s matchplay competition, playing six matches during the five days. This will be Christina’s district team debut and she follows in the footsteps of four previous current Headland members – Sue Jones, Karen Wilson, Josie Ryan and Annabel Harris. 

DAM(N) WATER: Within the space of five days, a second golf buggy, bag and clubs have been inadvertently dunked in one of Headland’s dams. Playing the 16th on Thursday, Helen Fraser parked her electric buggy near the bunker, assessed what she needed to play her next shot and retreated to her equipment, which was no longer adjacent, but 40 metres behind her about to submerge itself in the dam. Although her clubs, buggy, bag and car keys were retrieved, lost were her phone, GPS and prescription glasses. But despite the obvious distress and disappointment, Helen’s enthusiasm for golf has not been dampened and she will – as planned – play in the SCBDWG District Championships over three day at Bribie Island this coming week. Helen has asked HH to thank those who helped her fishing expedition on Thursday, in particular trainee Pro McKenzie Wright who she described as ‘a very caring young man’.

WEEKLY WINNERS:

Tuesday, Medley Fourball Best Ball Stableford (122 players) – John Kamm and Paul Hughes (51 points), Susan Wake and Grahame Denovan (50), Mandy Oster and Denise Hutchinson (49).

Wednesday, Medley Single Stableford (202 players) – A Grade, Adriaan Moorcroft (44 points), Tony Killey (41), Sam Springer (41); B Grade, Malcolm McColm (44), Peter Raymond (43), Paul Burnett (42); C Grade, Anthony Otago (48), Darren Padgett (45), Phil Martin (43).

Thursday, Ladies, Single Stableford (103 players) – A Grade, Robyn Boreham (41 points), Sinama Lolkes De Beer (38), Josie Ryan (38); B Grade, Susan Briffa (39), Sheila Waddington (39), Maureen Cartledge (37); C Grade, Sue Stratford (39), Maggie Fitzpatrick (38), Marie Flegler (38). Men, Fourball Best Ball Stableford (89 players) – Josh Poole and Steve Walters (49 points), Peter Colton and Sam Sprenger (47), Alf Gloster and James Snowball (47). 

Saturday, Ladies, Single Stableford (31 players) – Del Whittaker (43 points), Fiona Munro (38), Robyn Homans (38); Men, Single Par (213 players) – A Grade, Brian Callaghan (plus 5), Bob Trevor (+3), Simon Groom (+3); B Grade, Lawrence Hireme (+4), John Cleary (+2), David W Smith (+2) ; C Grade, John Christmas (+5), Barry Euston (+5), John Ross (+4).