The latest Australian golf news
By Helen Larkin THIRTY years ago, I worked for a large insurance company which had two corporate days a year – women were invited to Oaks Day and the men to play golf at a prestigious Melbourne sandbelt course. As a new employee, I told my manager I wasn’t interested in horseracing but was a […]
By Peter Owen IT was back in 1893 – when club founder James McIntosh was leading a push for North Queensland to become a separate state – that golfers first took to the fairways at Townsville Golf Club. Back then it was known as the North Queensland Golf Club and its first home was at […]
WHEN you’re 19 years old there aren’t too many things more appealing in life than golf, travelling and playing more golf. Well, maybe there’s one or two other things. Yet Dean Richards could barely contain his excitement after being accepted into a US college to continue a quickly-growing golf education. The Northern Beaches [Sydney] sportsman […]
By Peter Owen BEERWAH Golf Club, nestled at the foot of the Glasshouse Mountains, north of Brisbane, has always been renowned for the quality of its greens, many claiming they are the best on the Sunshine Coast. And officials of the popular hinterland club are determined to make them even better. Work has been taking […]
IT’S not hard to work out Queensland’s winter months are perfect for golf and is the reason why more than 100 golfers from all over the country turned up to play in the 72-hole Sunshine Winter Golf Classic at four of the region’s premier golf courses – Maroochy River, Peregian, Noosa Springs and Twin Waters. […]
By Rob Willis ANTHONY Gilligan was the classic golfing quiet achiever – until he wasn’t. With the Japanese Tour receiving little publicity in Australia, Gilligan plied his trade away from the media spotlight while earning a nice living and forging a successful career. However, Gilligan’s profile and status would change abruptly following a career-defining […]
By Michael Davis SURELY there cannot be a better comeback story in golf and life than that of 30-year-old Ryan Peake, the WA professional who recently strung together three consecutive victories on his home state’s pro-am circuit. His life has certainly been a roller-coaster. He has gone from being one of the state’s best amateurs […]
By Peter Owen TIM Hart knows that his swashbuckling, go-for-broke style of playing golf is ideally suited to the pro-am series, where most events are played over 18 holes, and none over more than 54 holes. He’s been phenomenally successful in those events, claiming more than 45 pro-ams throughout the country, and establishing himself as […]
By Peter Owen WHEN Lachlan Wood was 16, he was involved in a traffic accident so horrendous that it left him with 12 broken bones and a left leg shattered in 44 places. He spent most of the next two years in and out of hospital, then another year in a wheelchair as doctors fought […]
TWO new tournaments will make the upcoming Australian summer of golf the biggest in more than two decades with top-level professional golf to reach six states and into New Zealand. The continued expansion of the Webex Players Series will see South Australia host an ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia event for the first time […]
HE only took up golf to escape going home to a divided household. Yet Mark Hensby found he not only loved the game, but he was good at it too. The former Tamworth golfer eventually took one of the more unusual paths into professional golf. And the now US-based Hensby came the full circle when […]
By Peter Owen WHEN Chloe Veeran’s tee shot on the par-3 17th hole at Bunbury Golf Club dropped into the cup in early June her first thought was one of frustration. She knew the prize for an ace at the South West Open’s ‘party’ hole was a $60,000 vehicle, courtesy of event sponsor South West […]
IT’S too early to say ‘remember the name David Kang’, but perhaps it is a name to pencil in for the future. The 11-year-old, who plays off a 13 handicap at Cowra Golf Club in the central west region of NSW, recently won the club’s B grade championship. He returned rounds of 85-94-85-87 – 351 […]
THE revamped third hole at Links Hope Island Resort is now open for play and the reaction of the members and visitors to the newly-created par-4 has golfers enthusiastic about the change. The previous par-3 measuring 190 metres has been replaced with a short par-4 measuring 330 metres and with the previous hidden lake now […]
OCTOGENARIAN Bob Howe didn’t break his age until he was in his mid-70s, but since then he has been doing it as regular as clockwork. “My earliest round shooting below my age was a 74 at Mt Lawley Golf Club (Western Australia) at the age of 75,” Bob told Inside Golf after reading about Clive […]
By Peter Owen BRAD Robb, the energetic general manager of Tin Can Bay Country Club, 220km north of Brisbane, reckons his lack of interest in playing golf has been an enormous benefit to his club. “It means I have a broader outlook about what’s important for our club,” he said. “I can see what needs […]
THE renovations seem to have been going on forever, but Pelican Waters was scheduled to reopen for regular play on Saturday, July 1– although, it seems, without a cohort of members. The driving range and the main clubhouse building will, however, remain out of action until later in the year. Renovations began in 2020 and […]
LAST summer at St Andrews, Cameron Smith delivered a performance for the ages in the 150th Open. His final round of eight-under 64 helped him overtake heavy favourite Rory McIlroy for his first major championship and the right to take home the Claret Jug. Smith’s win put him in some strong company of not only […]
THE Open Championship returns to Royal Liverpool Golf Club in England for just the 13th time and is the venue where the late, great Peter Thomson won his third of five Opens in 1956. The 151st Open Championship gets underway this month (July 20-23) and the Aussies in the field will be vying to become […]
By Peter Owen THE biggest challenge facing Travis Smyth, the up-and-coming Aussie professional about to compete in his first major championship, is finding somewhere to play. The 28-year-old, in the best form of his life and healthier than he’s been all year, plays on the Asian Tour, which is basically in recess until August. So, […]
By Peter Owen WHEN John Mellish was appointed head pro at Beerwah Golf Club, in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, he was thinking no further ahead than the six-month trial he’d signed up for. But somewhere between August 1, 1985, and February 1, 1986, the paperwork must have been lost because the trial period was never […]
By Tony Webeck IN a parallel universe populated predominantly by Marvel superheroes, it would have been Louis Dobbelaar who won the 2021 Australian PGA Championship. That year’s Joe Kirkwood Cup wasn’t contested until January the following year, almost a year to the day from Dobbelaar’s victory at the Australian Amateur Championship. Coming from the same […]
By Michael Davis THERE’S nothing wrong with having a good dose of confidence in life as long as it’s not overbearing. Looking back, Nick Bielawski, reckons he was well and truly punching above his weight when he put his hand up to be coach of the China Elite Program at Sandhurst Golf Club in Melbourne […]
ONE of the highlights of the Handiskins national final is a chipping contest that results in a club golfer driving away in a brand-new Yamaha golf cart valued at $15,000. This year 20 club golfers qualified for the chip-off at Royal Pines Resort where each player was allowed two 50-metre chip shots with the player […]
By Tony Webeck CROWD-PLEASING West Australian Min Woo Lee will tap into the electric energy of the party hole as he eyes off a maiden Fortinet Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland Golf Club from November 23-26. The third consecutive playing for the Joe Kirkwood Cup in Brisbane has been locked in for late November […]
TAKING down some of the greatest golfers in history puts you among the elite of the game. That’s one of many conquests for Frank Phillips in his prime. Phillips passed away last month at the age of 90, but his place in the game in Australia should never be under-stated. Renowned as being one of […]
A YEAR and a half ago, Adam A’Vard didn’t even play golf, but he was thinking about taking up the game. He did just that and last month the 27-year-old electrician from Devilbend Golf Club in Victoria was crowned the Handiskinsnational champion after winning the final showdown at Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast. […]
PGA TOUR, DP World Tour, LIV Golf merge commercial operations under common ownership Agreement establishes common goal to promote and grow the game globally for the benefit of all stakeholders, ends litigation The PGA TOUR, DP World Tour and the Public Investment Fund (PIF) today announced a landmark agreement to unify the game of golf, on […]
By Tony Webeck THE more that you scratch beneath the surface, the more apparent that it becomes. That David Micheluzzi’s summer of superiority was far more than a hot streak not seen in Australia in almost 20 years. A three-time winner to claim the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit for 2022/2023, […]
By James Sutherland GOLF is big. Golf is getting bigger. Golf is different. These are the 10 words I unashamedly repeat every single day. Why? Because as an industry, golf is enjoying huge positive momentum, and I want everyone to understand the potential of our game. For Golf Australia, our purpose was laid bare in […]
KEPERRA Country Golf Club’s junior golf program received a shot in the arm last month when teenagers filled the club championship’s top three podium spots. Wesley Hinton, 16, won the A grade championship after posting a four-round total of 285 to edge out fellow teenagers Jack Jones (287) and Ben Dowling (295) – both aged […]
FORGET the Ryder Cup for a moment – here is a match made in Heaven. At least that’s the response you’d get from a few rugby league stars from the Manly Sea Eagles. The gun footballers thought they were dreaming when they turned up to Bayview Golf Club last month for a photo opportunity with […]
By Michael Davis ROYAL Park president, Bruce Sutherland, is a member of St Andrews in Scotland. “Luckily, I am a ‘country’ member which makes it affordable. It’s very dear otherwise.” But Bruce cherishes his membership at Royal Park just as dearly as he does that at the venerable home of the game of golf. Like […]
THE name Chappell will forever be synonymous with cricket after the stellar careers of brothers Ian, Trevor and Greg. Beyond their professional cricketing careers, the dedicated work of the Chappell brothers in building the game in Australia, and around the world, is something for the next generation to aspire to. Former captain Greg Chappell was […]
By Peter Owen DOM Azzopardi holds his mobile phone high in his hand. “I’ve got two 15-year-old identical twin daughters,” he says, “and I restrict the amount of time they’re allowed to use these. “I hate seeing young people on phones. The girls say to me, ‘Dad, you’re the one that’s always on the phone […]
I KNEW PGA professional Phil Curd, one of the most popular and successful club pros in Australia, had racked up more than four decades in the golf industry, but it did surprise me to learn he will soon pull the pin on a decorated golf career. In June, Curd will wave goodbye to the pristine fairways […]
By Peter Owen AS a 12-year-old growing up in Melbourne, David Kight would pedal his bike 30 minutes from his home in Mt Waverley to Metropolitan Golf Club early on Saturday mornings to offer his services to the members as a caddie. If he was lucky enough to land a job – as he usually […]
By Michael Davis OAKLEIGH Golf Club secretary Tim Anderson clearly has a sense of humour. He describes the recent successful merger of the men’s and women’s clubs “as always destined to be a marriage made in heaven”. Although he hastens to add it has probably been “four decades” in the making. Anderson’s matrimonial metaphors continue […]
THERE’S no Rolex gold watch or expansive long-service package for serving as a PGA member over your entire adult life, but if job satisfaction counts for anything then Greg Ramsey is “rolling in it”. On January 1, 2023 not only did Greg break open a fine bottle of Tyrells Merlot to bring in the new […]
By Tony Webeck BRENDAN Jones arrived at the 10th hole of the Coronet Course at the Millbrook Resort on Friday needing par or better to make the cut. Most likely. At four-under par through 35 holes of the New Zealand Open in Queenstown and with the afternoon field only a handful of holes into their […]
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