From Tony Durkin
GREAT DANE: Greenkeeper Dane Partridge has taken an immediate liking to his new course, collecting $130 in winnings for successive Fourball victories within three days. Dane (handicap 12) and Glenn Kelly (nine) averaged better than four points a hole to top the leaderboard in Saturday’s Medley Fourball Aggregate with 77 points, which backed up Dane’s Fourball Best Ball victory (53 points) alongside Des McNee on Thursday. Recently home from Canada after four years working at Okanagan Golf Club, Dane shot 78 which included three birdies and – embarrassingly for the big bloke who opts to carry his Callaway Staff bag – doubles at 17 and 18. Describing Headland as a ‘risk-and-reward’ course that plays beautifully, Dane said the softer rain-affected greens on Saturday had reminded him very much of Canadian conditions and had enabled him to shoot at more pins. Formerly of Manly, Dent Island and Bonville – where he served his apprenticeship – Dane scored 39 of the 77 points but credited Glenn’s coolness on their final two holes for their six-point winning margin.
A GREAT PIK: An impulsive purchase of a block of land at Bli Bli has been the forerunner to Pik Chong winning two Ladies Monthly Medals at Headland in the space of 10 months, the second of them on Thursday. Pik returned 72 nett from her handicap of 18 on a course she finds ‘very difficult’, to win the A Grade Medal and add to her B Grade victory in August last year. Originally from Malaysia, Pik started playing golf at Eastwood Golf Club in Victoria 20 years ago and moved north to retire to her new home in 2018, although the relocation was initially unintended. She visited her brother at Noosa in 2015 and returned home with a new handbag, and a block of land. And despite her handicap of 13 at Eastwood having crept out by five shots, she relishes the challenge playing the more demanding Headland course, enjoys the company of her fellow members and has every intention of reducing that growing handicap. Her very consistent card on Thursday revealed three pars, 13 bogeys and just two doubles. Leeanne Ptak won the B Grade Medal, Diane Molineux saluted in C Grade and Ann Dykstra won D Grade.
SCOTT SCORES: IT Consultant Scott Lindsay joined Headland two years ago, but has rarely played competition golf because of work overload. But he has relished COVID-19 restrictions as it has enabled him to play more golf, and the outcome has been a win in Sunday’s Medley Single Stableford event – his first as a member. Previously a member at Horton Park and before that Wakehurst Golf Club in Sydney, Scott scored 41 points on Sunday in a round which epitomised his recent consistency. Playing off 18, he had seven pars, nine bogeys and just two doubles in his tenth competition round since competitive golf re-started. Recent member Rose Sztama had led for most of the day with her impressive 40 points before Scott, playing in the final group, took pole position.
MAL’S MATE: Mal Bradshaw wants to use this space – ‘reserved’ for his A Grade win in Wednesday’s Medley Single Stableford – to do a favour for his good mate Brent Dalby. The former Headland Golf Manager for nine years before retiring in December 2017, Brent suffers from Thymic Carcinoma – a form of bone cancer – and because of his ill health has asked Mal to sell his pride and joy, a 2000 Mercedes-Benz E-Class E280 Elegance with just 93,000 klms on the clock. As would be expected from Brent, the car is in immaculate order, is on the market for $9,600 and can be viewed by calling Mal on 0403 363 734. Despite a wipe on the 11th and two lost balls, Mal still managed 38 points on Wednesday for his victory, while Mark Postles made it back-to-back wins in B Grade with 40 points and Tim Nunan continued his good form of late, winning C Grade with 39 points.
PRESENTATIONS: Ladies Director of Golf, Jane Boaler, has taken the initiative and – despite COVID-19 restrictions – has re-started Thursday presentations for ladies. With Marketing Co-Ordinator Megan Thorp playing the role of Videographer, Jane made the first ‘virtual’ presentation from the Ladies Locker Room last Thursday week and will continue until restrictions permit normal clubhouse socialising. The video, which delivers a rundown of winners from that day’s competition as well as other pertinent information and updates, is then emailed on the day to each lady member. The video also appears on the Ladies Captain blog, which is accessible through the Headland website. Not surprisingly, the virtual presentation has been extremely well received by the lady members.
WINNING SURVEY: Usually at this time of the year, retired surveyor Des McNee might well be travelling, but COVID-19 has kept him at home and enabled him to record a phenomenal nine-hole score at Headland. In Thursday’s Men’s Fourball Best Ball Stableford, Des teamed with new member Dane Partridge to return 53 points, and win the event by six points. And while former Bonville greenkeeper Dane played his part with 22 points, Des reeled of five four-point holes, three three-pointers and a two pointer for 31 points on just nine holes as his contribution. A Headland member for six years, Des – facetiously – equated his excellent scoring to ‘really good distance estimation after 40 years as a surveyor’. The lefty, who did not take up golf seriously until retiring to the Sunshine Coast from Gladstone, finished with a birdie at the 18th and saluted his round as by far his best in years.
HEADLAND POEM: Headland member Michael Christie, currently an Associate Professor at USC and Emeritus Professor of Stockholm University in Sweden, has literally fallen in love with the golf course of which he has been a member for eight years. And while back on the Sunshine Coast, the brief return of the kangaroos – the club’s emblem – has inspired him to pen a poem. The poem extols the natural beauty of the course and the creatures which share it with us. He has dedicated the poem to the ground staff who maintain what he says are the ‘wonders’ of the 18-hole layout, and its surrounds. Michael, who describes himself as a ‘very, very average golfer’, religiously plays early in the morning when, he says, the course is at its most pristine. Below is Michael’s poem:
For those who keep the greens
To be the first to land on the fairway
To see the full moon set
This is the way to start the day
Where the dew makes the green grass wet
The sun on the water is golden
The fountain ruffles the pond
The flag in the distance beckons
To the next green and beyond
The breasts of the lorikeets glow
Orange red in the morning light
The screech of the cockatoos’ echo
As the flock rises in flight
The wind last night was wild
Branches are broken from trees
On the ground near the dam, still buzzing
Is a fallen hive of bees
In the dead gum near the fourteenth hole
Noisy miners harry a hawk
Her mate, on duty, guards their nest
Perched high in the old trees’ fork
Late summer embraces the Headland
The ground begins to bake
The sun is higher now
It warms the slithering snake
The kangaroos were long gone
A pack of dogs saw to that
But there they are this morning
I stop to have a chat
I say farewell to the final hole
As other golfers arrive
The coast in the distance glitters
It’s still early, and I am alive
WHOOPS: Rarely do golfers play their second shot 20 metres behind where they had teed off, but that’s exactly what Tim Nunan did in Wednesday’s Medley Single Stableford. Tim sprayed his tee shot at the sixth hole to the right, the ball struck a gum tree, ricocheted back towards the tee, landed on the cart path and finished on the back tee. Unperturbed and swapping his driver for a three-wood, Tim cracked the next down the middle, put his third on the green and just missed the putt for what would have been a miraculous par. But even more incredible was the fact that Tim went on to score 39 points and win C Grade, despite starting his round with a wipe and having two one-point holes on his card.
WEEKLY WINNERS:
Tuesday, Single Stableford, Ladies (38 players) – Chrissy Eggins (39 points), Jane Boaler (36), Gwen Nancarrow (36); Men (79 players) – Mick Kelsey (39 points), Graham Pinn (39), Neville Kenzler (38).
Wednesday, Medley Single Stableford (217 players) – A Grade, Mal Bradshaw (38 points), Aaron Duff (37), Ben Butler (37); B Grade, Mark Postles (40), Gus Walker (38), Dean Oster (36); C Grade, Tim Nunan (39), Bob Lane (38), Chris Byrnes (36).
Thursday, Ladies, Monthly Medal (119 players) – A Grade, Pik Chong (72 nett), Sharon Thomas (73), Julie Halliday (76), gross – Sharon Thomas (83); B Grade, Leeanne Ptak (71), Gwen Nancarrow (73), Helen Fraser (73), gross – Helen Fraser (93); C Grade, Diane Molineux (69), Kath Walker (71), Deborah Thomas (74), gross – Diane Molineux (99); D Grade – Ann Dykstra (75), Jackie Walkington (77), Chrissy Eggins (78), gross – Ann Dykstra (115). Men, Fourball Best Ball Stableford (91 players) – Dane Partridge and Des McNee (53 points), Len Dawson and Gary Rugless (47), Aaron Duff and Greg Jellis (48).
Saturday, Medley Fourball Aggregate Stableford (213 players) – Dane Partridge and Glenn Kelly (77 points), Stephen Woolcott and Bryan Haggarty (71), Simon Richardson and Peter Richardson (71), Josh Poole and Kevin George ((71), Tony Durkin and Sean Hanna (70).
Sunday, Medley Single Stableford (91 players) – Scott Lindsay (41 points), Rose Sztama (40), Mark Henricks (39), Richard Senior (39), Mackenzie Wright (38), Daniel Hurst (38).
