From Tony Durkin
REVISED DATES: Men’s and Ladies’ Match Committees have met and, provided the Queensland Covid-19 Road Map progresses as planned, have produced a revised program for the remainder of the 2020 Headland golf season. Both Men’s and Ladies’ Club Championships will kick off on October 10 and be played over successive weekends, with the final 18 holes completed on Sunday, October 18. Another major event on the Headland calendar, the Walsh Consulting Engineers Men’s Sunshine Coast Open Amateur Championship scheduled for the Easter weekend, will now be played on Saturday and Sunday, September 26 and 27. The Ladies’ Foursomes Championship (27 holes) will be played on Thursday, August 13, while the Men’s 36-hole event will follow on Saturday, August 15, and the Mixed Foursomes (36 holes) on Saturday September 12. Closing day, played as a Four-Person Ambrose event, is set down for Saturday, December 12. Click on the link below for the complete revised program https://headland.miclub.com.au/cms/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Major-Events-Championships-Calendar-2020-revised-1.pdf
PRO FORM: The presence of former junior Adam Scott at Headland during the past two weeks has brought out the best in another ex-Headland professional – Matt Fisher. Matt was Assistant Pro to John Victorsen in the early 2000s before deciding on a future teaching in the classroom, rather than on the golf course, and re-joined the club in 2006. And despite the fact he has since played primarily for the enjoyment and camaraderie rather than the glory, his four-under par 68 in Sunday’s Medley Single Stableford event for 42 points – and a win – equalled his best score in his time at Headland. Ironically, it was the same score Adam Scott shot around the course seven days earlier. With five birdies on his card, Matt’s only blemish came at 15 when his six-iron found the bunker and he two putted for bogey. Late last year Matt (handicap two) was appointed Headland’s Junior Golf Co-ordinator and Junior Pennant Team Manager and in that role he has enjoyed watching the development of his 14-year-old son Jack, who at one stage on Sunday loomed as his dad’s biggest threat. Jack had amassed an amazing 31 points after 11 holes, but could manage only an additional seven for a more than respectable 38 points. NOTE: Headland’s current Trainee Professional, McKenzie Wright, was another to find form on Sunday, shooting a two-under par round of 70 with three birdies and a bogey.
FIVE-PAR ‘KAM’: She was voted Headland’s Most Improved Lady Golfer of 2018 and has won three events at the club since she graduated from the SWING program at the end of 2016, but no achievement in her short golfing career has excited Ruth Broderick more than scoring five pars in Tuesday’s winning round of 39 Stableford points. Ruth – nicknamed KAM because her friends say she is as ‘keen as mustard’ about the game – beat allcomers to win the B Grade Medley Division in her best-ever round. The first of her five pars – at the par- four fourth – earned her four Stableford points, to which she added seven three-pointers with just the one wipe on her card. And although she refuses to concede she is superstitious, ‘KAM’ always requests a high-number on the cart she hires from the Pro Shop, rationalising the higher the cart number, the more points she might score.
BOWLED, WARNIE: No spin was involved, but Graeme Warne bowled over the field with a 20-metre uphill curling putt to a back pin for a four-point birdie at the par-four 17th hole on Wednesday in the Medley Single Stableford event, which resulted in an easy A Grade victory with 44 points. Once a five-maker in his golfing heyday at Toowoomba, retired businessman Graeme looked on track to emulate his best Headland score of 46 points five years ago after turning in one-over par 37, and 24 points. But despite a string of five bogeys in seven holes stymieing his run on the back nine, the impressive card still revealed nine three-point holes from the 13-marker. New member Tyson Pilcher, playing in just his second competition round at the club, won B Grade with 41 points.
EAGLE BOYS: They had never played together prior to Tuesday’s Medley Single Stableford round, but a bunch of coincidences could well result in David Sims and Warren Gee becoming more regular playing partners. Both scored 33 points which, by their respective standards, was nothing special. But both also scored an eagle and a birdie, with their eagles coming on successive holes. A member since September, David (handicap 7) scored his eagle on the par-five 10th after a sweetly-timed three-wood left him a three-metre putt, which he duly sank. Warren (handicap 12), scored his at the 11th but, because he was unsighted behind the lip of the bunker, did not see his wedge shot disappear in the hole. While the thrill of scoring an eagle obviously never abates, for both David and Warren the feat is nothing new. Once a four-marker at The Federal Golf Club in Canberra, David has previously scored six eagles while Warren has eagled the first, second, sixth, ninth, 11th twice, 12th twice and the 16th during his 11 years as a Headland member. NOTE: Warren added a tenth eagle to his tally on Friday, albeit unofficial. He aced the 18th in a social round, scoring his first hole-in-one since way back in 1966 at Sydney’s Blackheath course.
CAROL’S FIRST: The ladies yet again dominated their day – Thursday – at Headland last week, with Carol Schwarz leading home the five female B Grade prize winners with an outstanding score of 43 Stableford points in the Medley event. A 2017 SWING graduate, Carol – nicknamed ‘The Mower Chaser’ because of her penchant for early-morning practise rounds – scored her first-ever win with a card that included a five-point birdie at the fifth, two four-pointers and eight three-point holes. Having never picked up a golf club prior to being encouraged by a friend to join the amazingly-successful Headland SWING program, the retired schoolteacher purchased a new set of Pings from the Pro Shop earlier in the year and has never looked back. Her 43 points was three better than runners-up Rebecca Masters and Trish Marsden, and five in front of A Grade winner Gary Rugless.
MAPLE SYRUP: Reily Moffat says one of the sweeteners for him to move from Canada to the Sunshine Coast with his Aussie wife Elyse was that he could join a golf club. Having sensibly selected Headland, Reily became a member in February last year and on Saturday won his first event when he saluted in the A Grade Medley Single Stableford with 40 points. But his round did not start as planned, with a visit to the bunker on the first costing a triple bogey and no points. From there though, things improved, and he added three birdies, four pars and 10 bogeys to a very consistent card and claimed his reliable putter kept him in the game. Working in the golf business back home in Canada, Reilly was a three-marker before marriage, a move Down Under and family commitments kept him off the course, and his goal now is to reduce his current handicap of 14 back down to single figures. His win on Saturday, 39 points on Wednesday and a recent victory at Maleny, has him heading in the right direction.
WEEKLY WINNERS:
Tuesday, Medley Single Stableford (178 players) – A Grade, Dean Smareglia (40 points), Tony Kelleher (39), Helen Fraser (38), Tony Flint (38), Ian Moore (37), John Prosser (37); B Grade, Ruth Broderick (39), Valerie O’Brien (39), Alan Stratford (37), Alf Gloster (37), Carmel Visser (37), Robert Pixley (37).
Wednesday, Medley Single Stableford (182 players) – A Grade, Graeme Warne (44 points), Ross Roberts (41), Ciaran Fenton (39), Reily Moffat (39), Wes Houk (38), Ross Carvell (38); B Grade, Tyson Pilcher (41), Toby Zaremba (39), Richard Ryan (38), Michael Gregora (38), Alan Reed (38), Daryl Jones (38).
Thursday, Medley Single Stableford (160 players) – A Grade, Gary Rugless (39 points), Bruce Horton (38), John Brewster (38), Tony McDonough (38), Catherine Petersen (38); B Grade, Carol Schwarz (43), Rebecca Masters (40), Trish Marsden (40), Ann Dykstra (38), Ree Condon (38).
Saturday, Medley Single Stableford (188 players) – A Grade, Reily Moffat (40 points), Brad Downes (40), Tom Burnett (39), Kathy Atkins (38), Lang Pryor (38); B Grade, Andrew Hempsall (40), Ossie Laurikainen (39), Dennis Farmer (39), Ross Wedmaeir (38), Deon Breytenbach (38).
Sunday, Medley Single Stableford (166 players) – Matt Fisher (42 points), Josh Holbrook (40), Valerie O’Brien (40), McKenzie Wright (39), Keita Griffin-Klazema (39), Wyndham Tibbits (39).
