From Tony Durkin
HOLIDAY FORM: Adam Richards has warmed up for next Saturday’s Headland Foursomes Championships with three impressive rounds on his home course in the past week. While on annual leave Adam, the three-time Club Champion and five-time Foursomes Champion, has posted scores of 72, 71 and 72 and is in peak form heading into the weekend where he will team with 2018 and 2019 Headland Junior Champion, Bailey Murchie. Adam has previously won the Foursomes with Brian Kesby (four times) and Scott Walker. While the scratchmarker did not figure in the major placings in either of the three events in the past week, he won the best gross – 71 and 72 respectively – in both the Wednesday Monthly Medal and Saturday’s Monthly Mug. In the three rounds he scored a total of 10 birdies. Adam (scratch) and Bailey (1) are among the favoured pairs to win the prestigious title, along with Jamie Hill (1) and Dave Rattray (3), Sean McGill (1) and Adam Rydwanski (3) and Brad Butler (2) and Jake Crowther (plus 1).
SINAMA RETURNS: Popular member Sinama Lolkes de Beer concedes that for the past couple of years she and her golf have had a rather rocky relationship. But while confessing to having ‘lost it’ during a lengthy period of recent ill health, Sinama never stopped believing and on Thursday won her first Monthly Medal since March, two years ago. Her round of 92 – nett 70 – won her both the B Grade nett and gross events and followed a second placing (40 points) the previous Thursday. The 22-year Headland member once played off 13 and while keen to continue her recaptured form, Sinama’s short-term goal is to shave her current handicap of 22, back to 18. Fiona Munro (83/71) won both the A Grade Monthly Medal and the best gross, while Leanne Ptak (99/69) achieved the same result in C Grade.
DROUGHT BROKEN: While never pretending to be a champion golfer, Laurie Corless has had quite a deal of success in his long association with the game. But until Saturday, the easygoing local gardener had not won the coveted Headland Monthly Mug since November of 2005. His excellent score off 66 nett – 90 gross – was the equal best score on Saturday, and won him the C Grade Monthly Medal by two shots following the long drought. Laurie, who plays religiously each Wednesday and Saturday, has been a Headland member since moving north from Brisbane in 1992, where he had been C Grade champion at Keperra Golf and Country Club. He has since added a Headland C Grade championship (2002) to his trophy cabinet but says he has been well below his best form when playing off a 10 handicap a dozen or so years ago. While Saturday’s Mug win was satisfying, so was his C Grade best nett score of 90, the winning side bet against regular partners Burgess Stephenson and Don Follent and a $200 win on the pokies post golf. Barry Newton, also with a nett 66, won A Grade while Ross Wedmaeir (69) won B Grade.
SCBDWG SUCCESS: Headland’s Robyn Boreham and Helen Fraser have continued their recent run of golfing success by being crowned 2019 Sunshine Coast Burnett and District Women’s Golf Division One nett champions. The district championships were held at Bribie Island Golf Club during the past week and Robyn had a host of success, being beaten in a play-off for the Division Two gross (96, 98, 96 – 194) as well as finishing second (156) in Division Two nett. And to cap off a superb four days of golf at the championships, Robyn and Helen teamed to win the Division One Foursomes nett, with a score of 76. Other notable results from Headland members came from Josie Ryan, fifth in Division One gross, and Chris Parkinson, who was sixth in Division Three gross.
BUILDER’S REWARD: It has taken almost four years, but builder Paul Clarke has finally been rewarded for the excellent work by his company on the renovations carried out to Headland’s Pro Shop. A club member for a dozen years but an irregular player, Paul turned back the clock to when he once played off 10 and scored 66 nett from his now-18 handicap and returned the best score in Wednesday’s Medley Single Stableford. The son-in-law of fellow members Bob and Anne Hayward, Paul described his nine-par, six-bogey, three-double bogey round as an eclipse, saying the round came from ‘nowhere’ as he discovered that form from many years ago. And while he can’t recall the exact time he last won a golf event, he does proudly remember a Monthly Mug victory some years ago when he beat perennial winner Ken Anderson to the A Grade title. Paul also won best B Grade gross score on Wednesday and collected a nearest the pin shot, boosting his winnings to $103. Peter Gablonski (69 nett) won the A Grade medal while Terry Murphy, with an excellent 67, saluted in C Grade.
SUNSHINE COAST OPEN: Entries are now open for the rescheduled 2019 Walsh Consulting Engineers Men’s Sunshine Coast Open Amateur Championship, to be played over two days at Headland Golf Club. The 36-hole tournament will be played on Saturday and Sunday, September 21 and 22, after being cancelled from its scheduled Easter timeslot following more than 200 millimetres of rain falling on the course over a 10-day period. A capacity field had been entered back in April and event sponsor, Justin Walsh of Walsh Consulting Engineers, hopes a similar quality field will contest the rescheduled prestigious event. The maximum handicap for players entering the tournament has been increased to 21.6 (AGU) and entries close at https://www.jotform.com/HeadlandGolfClub/2019menssunshinecoastopenamateur this coming Wednesday (September 11). Cost is $75 which includes a breakfast or lunch roll each day. The morning field will tee off from 6.20am to 8.20am each day, and the afternoon field between 10.40am and 12.40pm.
WEEKLY WINNERS:
Tuesday, Single Stableford, Ladies (53 players) – Louise Dautel (41 points), Linda Darnell (38), Monica Antony (38); Men (70 players), Grahame Denovan (41 points), John Kamm (40), Tim Nunan (39).
Wednesday, Medley Monthly Medal (211 players) – A Grade, Peter Gablonski (69 nett), Dean Smareglia (70), Denis Orr (71), gross – Adam Richards (71); B Grade, Paul Clarke (66), Jon Welch (69), John Keating (72), gross – Paul Clarke (84); C Grade, Terry Murphy (67), Bob Lane (70), Jack Williams (70), gross – Bob Lane (93).
Thursday, Ladies, Monthly Medal (97 players) – A Grade, Fiona Munro (71 nett), Sue Jones (72), Kristin Griffiths (72), gross – Fiona Munro (83); B Grade, Sinama Lolkes De Beer (70), Del Whittaker (71), Veronica Bassingthwaighte (72), gross – Sinama Lolkes De Beer (92); C Grade, Leanne Ptak (69), Maggie Fitzpatrick (710, Dianne Schultz (72), gross – Leanne Ptak (99). Men, Single Stableford (97 players) – Neville Kenzler (41 points), Darryl Pettingill (40), John Jamieson (40).
Saturday, Ladies, Monthly Medal (27 players) – Bev Barnes (71 nett), Trish Marsden (72), Maggie Fitzpatrick (74), gross – Colleen Berger (87). Men, Monthly Mug (218 players) – A Grade, Barry Newton (66 nett), Simon Richardson (69), Kevin McDougal (69), Scott Bromfield (69); gross – Adam Richards (72); B Grade, Ross Wedmaeir (69), Tom Burnett (70), Chris Klazema (71), John Keating (71), gross – Tom Burnett (85); C Grade, Laurie Corless (66), Alan Reed (68), John Logan (69), Deon Breytenbach (69), gross – Laurie Corless (90).
Sunday, Vets, Headland Living Choice Classic, Medley Fourball Best Ball Stableford (90 players) – Denis McGrath and Graham Wilson (48 point), Vicki and Neil Oxley (46), Judy and Dennis Farmer (46), Graeme Warne and Peter Hannah (45).
