The latest Australian golf news
AMONG the young kids who regularly contest the three-hole competitions in the Glasshouse Mountains Zone Futures Tour, Billy Zerbst stands out. He’s always the smallest. That’s hardly surprising. He’s also the youngest – a four-year-old taking on five- and six-year-olds in a competition aimed at encouraging youngsters to learn and play the game of golf. […]
MOST golfers who take up the game of golf will eventually start dreaming about getting a hole-in-one. For many golfers it’s the ultimate prize. Well, the dream became reality for one young Collangatta Tweed Heads Golf Club (CTHGC) junior member when he aced the seventh hole on the River Course. Eight-year-old Ollie Moore stunned golfers […]
FOUR months ago, Cassie Porter struggled to bend down to tie her laces without pain due to a serious back stress fracture. But using her mental strength, Porter, 19, mustered enough strength to lift the women’s Keperra Bowl after coming home with a wet sail over the final four holes with an eagle-birdie-birdie-par finish. The […]
HE turned 50 in October, but for now Nick O’Hern is content. Melbourne’s frustrating Covid-19 lockdown of the past few months means the West Australian left-hander won’t be rushing off just yet to try his luck on the US PGA Tour Champions. A winner of multiple titles in Australia and at one time among the top-20 […]
GOLF Journeys, an Australian golf travel company, has big plans in store for golfers as the country starts to re-open for travel. The travel company is managed by Mark Hawley, a golf tournament director with over 10 years’ experience, and Rueben Scheckter, a recognised digital and tech-centric entrepreneur. Hawley and Scheckter have put their heads […]
MALENY Golf Club has a new “infinity edge” practice green and a permanent home for its fleet of 24 golf carts following the recent completion of a purpose-built storage shed as part of a key infrastructure project. Some spare space in the shed, which can hold up to 32 carts, is being leased to members […]
By Michael Davis PARDON this self-indulgence. But I am more than a little peeved at the mainstream media’s never-ending snub of golf at a time when the game is experiencing a hitherto unseen surge in participation and interest. Do the news editors, sports editors, producers and content creators have their heads buried in the sand […]
By Michael Davis GEOFF Ogilvy’s golf course architecture company has won the prized contract to re-design the famous Medinah Course #3 at the fabled country club, 40 kilometres west of Chicago. “It’s pretty exciting for us with the great history of the place, having hosted US Opens, the Ryder Cups and with the Presidents Cup […]
BEING a good caddie on the PGA Tour can be financially rewarding – just ask Steve Williams who caddied for Tiger Woods from 1999 to 2011. Many tour bag toters earn hundreds of thousands of dollars annually and their bosses don’t mind paying them handsomely because it means they are finishing high up on leaderboards. […]
BUNKER-TO-BUNKER…. Inside Golf writers have their say! By Michael Davies TO me, trotting out $US15 million to the winner of the FedEx Cup verges on the obscene. And I reckon if you asked the players off the record, they would agree. They seem to be just going through the motions at this event each year. […]
ONE club boasts an incredible 159 per cent jump in membership. And that’s just a part of a golf membership ‘boom’ that has come about due to the Covid-19 pandemic in New South Wales. The golfing landscape has changed dramatically in the 18 months as golf has become the real ‘go-to’ sport with so many […]
CORAL Cove Golf Club surprised even itself when it held its third annual charity golf day to raise much-needed funds for the Challenge Foundation. The #DoingitforJarrod fundraising event is held in memory of former PGA professional Jarrod Lyle at courses across Australia to raise funds for families affected by cancer. Anyway, more than 120 players […]
DESPITE the wet and wild weather conditions, more than 90 women travelled from Royal Perth, Lakelands and Floreat in the north, High Wycombe in the east and Collie in the south to play in Pinjarra Golf Club’s annual Ladies Charity Golf Day. More than $2,600 was raised from competition entry fees, raffles and trade table […]
THINK about the last time you tried something new – maybe a gym visit, a pottery class or even golf. What inspired you? What deterred you? Golf Australia’s Jayden Zeinstra is certain that one of those answers would be “the deliverer”. “Deliverers have such an impact on our experiences, even more so for beginners,” Zeinstra […]
A LARGE contingent of interstate police golfers managed to escape the winter cold and pending lockdowns in late July to take part in the Australian Police Golf Championships (APGC) in winter-warm Darwin. It was the first APGC held in Darwin for 23 years. Originally planned to be played in South Australia, the event was moved […]
By Kim Burke LOCKDOWN golf is different in every club and at the picturesque Shelly Beach GC on the NSW Central Coast it has necessitated a nine-hole competition and social play only to cater for its 1200-plus membership. The women’s committee, through their 250-plus closed members Facebook group, decided to add a bit of fun […]
IN these harsh Covid-19 times across Australia, golf in all its forms – private and social club memberships, public course participation and those people who would normally be travelling throughout the country or overseas, are turning to golf. This is particularly so in Western Australia which, according to Golf WA CEO Gary Thomas. The State […]
MANY leading golf tournaments (professional and amateur) are being cancelled or pushed back, but not the Keperra Bowl which has been played annually at Keperra Country Golf Club in Brisbane for the past 16 years. The prestigious Keperra Bowl, a 72-hole Golf Australia Order of Merit and R&A World Amateur Golf Ranking Event, is scheduled […]
By David Ross I HAVE been playing golf for too many years to remember and have walked hundreds of golf courses across Australia pulling a buggy as well as driving in all brands of golf cars on the market, and I’ve seen the improvement of all battery-operated vehicles. Anyway, recently I had the opportunity to […]
ONCE upon a time, motorhome companies were considered at the ultra-end of the niche spectrum. Add the word luxury into the mix, and it sharpened the market even further. Even before the recent significant disruptions to the world as we knew it, we were noticing a shift in our customer base – from almost […]
FOR many golfers, retiring to a golf resort is the ultimate “un-retiring” lifestyle. Not only can you walk to golf, but you’re surrounded by hectares of green space that you never have to mow. Less house and garden maintenance means more time for golf – and, of course, socialising afterwards! Living Choice Parkwood, overlooking the […]
KEEN golfers David Goss and Nancy Young are among the first deposit-holders to find their dream retirement apartment at The Ninth Middle Ridge beside Toowoomba Golf Club’s historic course. The couple play the course two or three times a week and Nancy is a life member after serving as the first female president of club. […]
By Karrie Webb WITH golf booming over the past 18 months during the Covid-19 pandemic, with participation and membership numbers up for the first time in years, now is not the time for status quo but for progress and change. Golf has always been slowly reactionary rather than being proactive in elevating and changing our […]
Bunker-to-bunker ….. Inside Golf writers have their say. By David Newbery FOR me, the current format doesn’t cut it so it’s a no. Besides, golf at the Olympics doesn’t mean much to the world’s best players. If the Olympic golf event was held in the same week as the Masters, Open Championship, US Open or […]
By Michael Davis and David Newbery IT was not until the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne in 1998 that most Australians were able to witness firsthand what being part of a team means to golfers who usually play individual events. The event was in its infancy but you could have cut the air with a […]
THE 2021 Outback Queensland Masters only recently completed its 1900km journey across Outback Queensland, but players are already planning to take part in the 2022 tournament. Next year’s event will again take players across outback Queensland … all the way to Birdsville on the edge of the Simpson Desert where a $1 million hole-in-one prize […]
IT is a tag that has only been bestowed upon a handful of golfers throughout the history of our game – “the best golfer to have never won a major championship”. It is one that both Lee Westwood and Colin Montgomerie have learned to live with and one Phil Mickelson, thankfully, shed in 2004 after […]
WHAT is a course superintendent’s plan of action when he has a wish list for new equipment, including a much-needed turf cutter? Well, in the case of Muree Golf Club’s super Robert Baker you casually mention it to a club member whose wife just happens to be a staff member and keen golfer. That is […]
CHAMPION golfer Robert Allenby, oftentimes a mysterious figure in golf circles, announced his return to golf after turning 50 in July … and falling out of a boat. Allenby has hardly played any golf in the past year, but he made his PGA Tour Champions debut at the Senior (British) Open at Sunningdale in England […]
PROFESSIONAL Mark Gibson recently joined an elite group of individuals when he was awarded life membership of the PGA of Australia. Gibson’s name now sits comfortably alongside the likes of Norman von Nida, Peter Thomson, Kel Nagle, Charlie Earp, Paul King, Alex and Dave Mercer, Peter Senior, Graham Marsh, Rodger Davis, Ian Baker-Finch et al. […]
YEAH, I know, I’m always waffling on about the thin line that separates tour stars striding down a fairway with wall-to-wall fans cheering on an impending victory and another two years of play for millions. It’s a combination of an adjective and an amount of money – the equally talented pros anxiously creeping down the […]
Historic near unanimous vote by the members of Oxley Golf Club in Brisbane has paved the way for a significant development project at the club. Following nine months of planning and investigation, the club recently started the construction of a unique mini-golf facility, which will be positioned on what was the par-3 ninth hole. The […]
Boonah Golf Club members recently elected its first female president in the club’s 93-year history. Ms Bernice Dover, 66, was elected unopposed, together with a new management committee, at a special general meeting. Ms Dover, a former human resources professional with some 30 years experience nationally and internationally, said she wanted to “build the club’s […]
Certainly the pandemic and travel restrictions has changed golf and how it is played all around the world. Even organisers of the National Hickory Championships, which have been played in the US for 23 years, were forced to make changes to allow “foreigners” a chance to compete. For those that could not play at the […]
By Michael Davis It’s big news when anyone has a hole-in-one at your club. But at Cranbourne, in Melbourne’s south-east, they’re claiming what must be some sort of a record after three members scored aces in eight days – two of them in three days. Steven Leigh and Mark Hammerschlag landed their gems on the […]
By Michael Davis No matter what level we play the great game of golf, everyone is aware that in Covid times it is increasingly difficult to obtain a tee time. Now the boom in Australian golf, which has been quite anecdotally, has been confirmed by the release of official AusPlay statistics. They show that golf […]
Many thoughts have been aired about the plight of the Australasian professional tour. Many years ago, the legendary Peter Thomson said Australia was just a nursery. Of course, there are others who bemoan the current state of the Australian Open – once considered by some as the world’s fifth major. Yet others wail that the […]
Sydney star Steph Kyriacou, who took the world by storm in 2020 winning the Australian Ladies Classic while still a 19-year-old amateur, has taken the next step in her graduation to top echelon of the women’s game winning as a professional at the “Big Green Egg Open” on the Ladies European Tour. Steph’s progression in […]
There’s gold in them thar hills” warbled Frankie Marvin some nine decades ago. And today it’s a golden era for professional golfers good enough to make it on to the richest golf tour – the US PGA Tour. Unlike all other sports where athletes retire long before the age of 40, professional golfers on the […]
By Cameron Morfit, PGATOUR.COM Hadn’t seen parents for nearly 18 months due to pandemic, Australia lockdown Marc Leishman sinks a 17-foot birdie on No. 17 in Round 1 at WGC-FedEx St. Jude It was a nice round that got him right in the thick of it despite having traveled across 14 time zones. But Marc Leishman’s 5-under […]
