From Tony Durkin
GOOD GUY WINS: For the second successive week an ex-Pro golfer has won Headland’s Sunday Medley competition, with four-marker Shane Muller returning a three-under par 69 for 43 Stableford points. Shane, a Headland member since November when he took over as Executive Manager at The Good Guys, Kawana Waters, finished atop the leaderboard among a hot field, with just four points separating the first 14 placegetters. But Shane’s score was far and away the standout, with three birdies highlighting a brilliant three-under par 33 on the back nine. His card revealed six birdies overall, with bogeys at three, seven and eight blotting what was an otherwise superb card. A junior at Maryborough Golf Club and later at Hervey Bay, Shane had a crack as a Trainee Pro at Surfers Paradise Golf Club before the sudden death of his dad forced him to head back home. A former scratch maker at both Surfers Paradise and Hervey Bay, Shane loves the challenge of his new home course and describes Headland as ‘difficult, but with amazing greens.’
JACK’S BEST: Six days after his ex-Golf Professional dad shot a four-under par 68 at Headland to win, 14-year-old Jack Fisher has registered the best score of his burgeoning golf career. A member of Headland’s Junior Pennant team, Jack returned 40 Stableford points in Saturday Medley Single Stableford event, a round that included a wipe at the par-four 12th. And while his score wasn’t good enough to win him the B Grade prizemoney, it continued his excellent form of late following 38 points – playing alongside his dad – last Sunday. But there is still room for improvement for the 31 marker. Last week he had scored 31 points after 11 holes, but could manage only an additional seven coming home, and on Saturday he again stumbled on the back nine, adding just 15 to his remarkable 25 on the front. Vince O’Neill returned the best score of the day – 41 points – win B Grade, while Damien Moelands won A Grade with 40 points.
GOLF AWAKENING: Ex-Falcons Q Cup skipper Ryan Hansen was never late for a game of rugby league, and he maintained that discipline on Wednesday when the FIFO machine operator kept his 9.30am tee time at Headland despite not arriving at Brisbane Airport until 7.45. A Headland member for just six weeks, the former Storm and Broncos player started his round in the same blur as his trip up the Bruce Highway, bogeying the first three holes and thinking he should not have rushed. But his brain then clicked in and he scored 32 of his 39 points in the following 15 holes, despite a wipe at the 12th, and won the A Grade Single Stableford Medley event. Ryan (handicap 9) started playing golf as a student at Brisbane State High and until six weeks ago had never been a member of a club, preferring to play socially. And he has absolutely taken to his latest sporting challenge like a duck to water and intends playing as often as he can each fortnight – providing his flights are not delayed.
SANITY PREVAILS: To help him remain sane during the Covid-19 shutdown, local travel agent Neil Playford has played golf at least once a week since Headland reopened, and on Wednesday the pieces finally fell into place. Playing off 10, Neil – who, with his wife Therese, owns Travel Associates – scored 41 points to win A Grade despite being five over par after five holes. From there on he returned par figures, with two birdies and two bogeys in his best round in recent memory. And while Neil says his business is enduring unprecedented tough times, he believes golf has been good for his mental health and credits a pie and coke at the halfway house on Wednesday as one of the contributing factors in his one-under par 35 on the back nine. Neil first joined Headland in 2006, took a sabbatical from 2010 until he re-joined in 2018 to start his travel agency, and – business permitting – intends to continue his recent weekly mental therapy.
PERFECT COUPLE: When Vicki Oxley recently retired, she decided to judge for herself just what was so attractive about this game of golf that had become almost an obsession to her husband Neil. Vicki joined the SWING program in 2018, became a Headland member early last year and now concedes she, also, is hooked. And just to prove that she can emulate Neil, Vicki won Tuesday’s Medley Single Stableford event with almost the identical scoring stats her husband produced to win the same event five weeks earlier. Both scored 40 points, with 21 on the front nine and 19 on the back. Vicki led home the five lady winners in B Grade, with six three-point holes on her card and a four-point par at the fourth – her best round to date. And while she concedes luck played a hand in her score, the recent acquisition of a new Titleist rescue club from Headland Pro Shop has helped her game immensely. Vicki has made remarkable progress in the 18 months since graduating from SWING, reducing her handicap from 42 to 30, with her goal of ‘in the 20s’ now very close to reality.
JOY OF WINNING: Joy Bullock doesn’t believe she has discovered the answer to winning at golf, but she reckons the secret to better scoring most definitely lies with her putter. Joy won Thursday’s B Grade Medley Single Stableford with a competition-high 42 points, and said the difference between her ‘usual 29 or 30 points’ was that the putts that regularly miss, had magically dropped. Not one to over-analyse her game, the 2016 SWING graduate also believed that playing in the same group as two men had helped with her concentration. Despite wipes at the first and tenth, Joy penned 10 three-point holes on her card, seven of them in her final eight holes. And the domination of the ladies on their traditional competition day continued – they filled five of the six placings in B Grade and a second in A Grade.
EAGLE SUNDAY: Eagles are usually a rare bird on any golf course, but on Sunday at Headland they rained down – literally. Former Club Captain Ian Moore scored his 14th career-eagle when he dunked a four-iron following a poor drive – by his standards – on the first hole, for the first of four eagles on the day. Teenager Josh Holbrook followed on the par-five second, with his first eagle and his first under-par score – a one-under 71 for 40 points, and two eagles followed on the short par-four 11th, by David Cawthorne and Will Millroy. David, a former one-handicapper who says he has scored ‘somewhere in the 20s’ eagles, did not see his disappear in the hole from the furthest bunker on the right, while Will Millroy drove the green and sank a five-metre putt for his second eagle at Headland. NOTE: The 11th hole was a nest for eagles over the weekend, with Dennis Clifford scoring one there on Saturday. But his sixth career eagle had its drawbacks – Dennis wiped five of his remaining seven holes.
WHOOPS: Members on Wednesday were given a strong reminder that even though their scores are being recorded electronically on the MiScore app, it remains their responsibility to ensure they sign a correct card. A member who scored 47 points on Wednesday and would easily have won the competition, was disqualified for signing an incorrect card. And while the club has been somewhat tolerant with these mistakes over recent times, a line in the sand has finally been drawn.
WEEKLY WINNERS:
Tuesday, Medley Single Stableford (178 players) – A Grade, Ben Butler (40 points), Glen Wakefield (39), Warren Gee (38), Paul Stephens (37), Steve Nash (36), John Christmas (36);
B Grade, Vicki Oxley (40), Joy Logan (37), Katrina Burke (37), Di Stark (37), Denise Lawson (37), Valerie O’Brien (36).
Wednesday, Medley Single Stableford (184 players) – A Grade, Neil Playford (41 points), Glenn Walker (39), Glenn Kelly (37), Tim O’Keeffe (37), Matt Griffiths (37), Ciaran Fenton (36); B Grade, John Jones (39), Doug Bannam (37), Steve Walters (37), Ian Russell (36), Malcolm Webster (35), Gordon Russell (35).
Thursday, Medley Single Stableford (184 players) – A Grade, Ryan Hansen (39 points), Katrina Watts (39), Glen Wakefield (39), Barry Mapes (37), Graeme Donovan (37), Trevor Simpson (37); B Grade, Joy Bullock (42), Margaret White (41), Ashleigh Matheson (40), Valerie O’Brien (39), Penny Cooper (37), Ree Condon (37).
Saturday, Medley Single Stableford (187 players) – A Grade, Damien Moelands (40 points), Andrew Hay (39), Justin Nicholson (38), Glen Grimish (38), Annabel Harris (38), Ivan Fortmann (37); B Grade, Vince O’Neill (41), Jack Fisher (40), Gary Jamieson (39), Russell Dowling (39), Chris Byrnes (38), Don Follent (38).
Sunday, Medley Single Stableford (183 players) – Shane Muller (43 points), Russell Harris (42), Will Millroy (41), John Miller (41), Brian Garnett (40), Simon Groom (40).
