The latest Australian golf news
VORACIOUS golfer Andrew Lauder has always relished a golfing challenge so when his mates threw down the gauntlet he was quick to respond. In the late-1980s, Andrew and his golfing mates enjoyed playing as many different courses as possible, but they accused him of ‘dragging the chain’. “My golfing odyssey, or perhaps idiocy according to […]
THE rarest of birds, the albatross, landed not once but twice during the same round at Burleigh Golf Club on the Gold Coast. Ryan Rodgers, who plays off +1, and seven marker Mike Williams (pictured) achieved the feat just 20 seconds apart at the ninth hole on Thursday, October 20. Mike picked up five valuable […]
IT’S become something of a tradition in the Northern Rivers of NSW. And the ‘social’ side of it just keeps golfers coming back year after year … for 50, in fact. Like so many great organisations, the idea sprang over a few beers with a few keen golfers in 1969. Now, five RSL social golf […]
FORMER Scottish Open champion and PGA life member Peter O’Malley has been named the new patron of Nomads Golf Australia. O’Malley takes over the role from golf legend Jack Newton who sadly passed away in April this year. Speaking recently from Thurgoona Golf and Country Club where he played in the NSW Senior Open Championship, […]
PGA professional Troy Alsford has been appointed golf operations manager at Warwick Golf Club – a southeast Queensland country golf course established in the late 1800s. Troy and his wife Kerry recently moved to Warwick from Melbourne to be close to their family and are enjoying renovating a local home. The club’s vice-president Mary Young […]
THOUGH they could finish no better than fourth, the five golfers who represented Australia in the Women’s PGA Cup in New Mexico in late October described the experience as the highlight of their careers. “To get the chance to go over there and represent Australia is the highest honour I’ve had to date,” Queenslander Katelyn […]
Queensland’s Cameron Smith has been awarded the Greg Norman Medal for the second time in three years at the PGA Awards at Brisbane City Hall on Tuesday, November 22. Also victorious in 2020, Smith claimed Australian golf’s highest honour ahead of a stellar field, including the 2021 winner and 2022 Women’s US Open champion, Minjee […]
By Peter Owen FOR the past five years members of Headland Golf Club on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast have been receiving their very own unique weekly news bulletin, penned by one of the country’s best-known sports writers. Tony Durkin, once editor of Rugby League Week, media manager of the Brisbane Broncos and long-time league columnist for […]
IT’S one of the most successful junior golf events played anywhere in the world. And the Jack Newton International Junior Classic always attracts a sprinkling of class players from overseas as well as the best youngsters in Australia when it is played in the Hunter Valley each year. The ever-popular Cypress Lakes Golf and Country […]
THE strength of junior golf in Australia was obvious when a seven-strong team of boys and girls took the Maple Leaf Junior Tour’s National Team Challenge in Ontario, Canada, in mid-September. It was the second time the Aussies had won the highly regarded 54-hole tournament, contested by teams from Canada and the United States. They […]
KEEP a watchful eye on Central Queensland junior Isaak Jensen. After winning the Rockhampton Junior Open and Greg Norman junior qualifying event, Jensen took out the 36-hole Central Queensland Junior Open played at Emu Park Golf Club by a whopping 27 strokes. That’s right, 27 strokes! He carded rounds of 71-69 for a 140 total. […]
HARRY Takis is arguably the best male junior golfer in Queensland, and if his Bundaberg-based girlfriend Kate McFarlane isn’t the best female junior, she’s certainly one of the best two or three. The two practice together, play together, support one another and take joy in each other’s successes. But they’re still highly competitive, and like […]
QUEENSLAND and Australian representative Justice Bosio has virtually made the Keperra Bowl her own. The 18-year-old, who will represent Australia at the Asia-Pacific Women’s Amateur in Thailand this month, won the inaugural women’s Keperra Bowl in 2020, finished runner-up in 2021 and last month captured her second Bowl at Keperra Country Golf Club in Brisbane. […]
By Michael Davis ADAM Scott is making an emotional homecoming after three years to have another tilt at his home country’s national Open. Scott, 42, still ranked inside the top 30 players in the world, will tee it up in the Australian Open at Victoria and Kingston Heath golf clubs from December 1-4. Scott’s impressive 2022 […]
THERE’S no place like home and for young Sydneysider Cameron Davis, it feels like years since he’s been able to return to his home club at Roseville (and Monash) and catch up with all his old friends. Actually, it has! It’s been almost three years since Davis has been able to return home and now […]
By Michael Davis THE Vic Open is coming back to 13th Beach on the Bellarine Peninsula for 2023 and 2024. Golf Australia announced it would be staged at 13th Beach Golf Links near the village of Barwon Heads for the 10th consecutive time from February 9-12. A player and fan favourite, the tournament which includes titles […]
IT didn’t take Harrison Endycott long to find his feet on the US PGA Tour. Playing in his first event after graduating from the Korn Ferry Tour, the 26-year-old impressed onlookers at the $8m Fortinet Championship at Silverado Resort and Spa in Napa, California last month. He carded rounds of 72-70-65-72 – 279 (nine-under par) […]
AUSTRALIAN Travis Smyth finally got the monkey off his back and won his maiden title on the Asian Tour when he recorded an impressive two-shot victory in the $US700,000 Yeangder TPC in late September. The 27-year-old Sydneysider drew on a season of strong performances and near misses to fire his second successive six-under-par 66 for […]
AUSTRALIAN golf’s dynamic duo, Minjee and Min Woo Lee, are set to light up the Australian Open next month with their brother-sister act. Golf Australia confirmed that both the siblings from Perth will tee it up in the historic first mixed-gender Open at Victoria Golf Club and Kingston Heath Golf Club in Melbourne from December […]
EARLIER this year Adelaide-born Wade Ormsby switched from playing the DP World Tour (European Tour) to the LIV Golf Invitational Series. Last month the 42-year-old was in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for LIV Golf’s event at Royal Greens Golf and Country Club and that’s where Inside Golf reporter Shawne McKenna caught up with him to find […]
IT all started 50 years ago when South Australian businessman and keen golfer Alan Gillott had a light-bulb moment while reading a golf magazine article featuring American female teaching professional Jeanette Rector. Right then, Alan thought to himself: “Why can’t we have women professional golfers in Australia?” This inspired Alan to do some research into […]
By Michael Davis SOUTH Australia’s Grange Golf Club has elected its first woman president. Nicolle Rantanen Reynolds officially became the club’s 25th president at the Annual General Meeting in September. Ms Rantanen Reynolds replaced Bruno Battistella, who was the second longest serving president in the club’s history. He held the office for eight years. Prior […]
The Grange Golf Club in Adelaide, South Australia’s capital city, to host the country’s debut LIV Golf Tournament April 21-23 as part of 2023 LIV Golf League Schedule By LIV Golf Adelaide, Australia and West Palm Beach, FL (November 13, 2022): LIV Golf today announced a multi-year commitment to bring LIV Golf League events to Australia […]
RENOVATIONS are in full swing at Metung Country Club, formerly known as Kings Cove Golf Club, located in Metung on the Gippsland Lakes. Metung Hot Springs recently took over management of the club, which boasts a Ted Parslow-designed nine-hole public access golf course. Clubhouse facilities are being reimaged with a unique aesthetic, pairing the relaxed […]
HIS short game has always been his strength, but now Brian Taylor’s drive is “smooth” after taking delivery of a brand-new $10,000 Yamaha golf cart he won in a chip-off competition. To recap, Brian won the golf cart in a 50m chip-off against 13 other club golfers at the Handiskins national final at Royal Pines […]
RENOWNED golf coach Charlie Earp and his beloved wife Margaret will celebrate something special this month – their 60th wedding anniversary. Yes, the happy couple tied the knot on October 4 way back in 1962 when Greg Norman, the man Charlieguided to world number one, was still in short pants and attending primary school. And […]
GOLFERS braved a windswept St Andrews Beach golf course on the Mornington Peninsula for a very good cause recently. The occasion was the Kieser Australia St Andrews Beach Pro-Am organised by St Andrews Beach PGA associate professional James Bowen, who was determined to raise much-needed funds for Challenge – supporting kids with cancer. The day […]
MAYBE there’s something in the water which seemingly threatens almost every shot at the famous Tournament Players Club in Sawgrass, Florida. Or maybe it just suits the ‘eye’ of the Aussies who have done so well there. Now young Sydneysider Jeffrey Guan has thrust his name up there beside Cameron Smith as a 2022 winner […]
EXCITEMENT is building for the 18th edition of the prestigious Keperra Bowl to be played at the picturesque Keperra Country Golf Club in Brisbane from October 11-14. The 72-hole Keperra Bowl is a Golf Australia Order of Merit and R&A World Amateur Golf Ranking Event. The event always attracts the cream of the amateur crop […]
THE current year has truly provided the Australian golfing public with some outstanding performances on the US PGA Tour. Those performances have proven extremely fruitful for seven of the 13 players on the tour. Still, only two Australian players, world number two Cameron Smith and Lucas Herbert, recorded victories. Smith won three times – the […]
FOR some observers of the LIV Golf Invitational Series, young Aussie Jediah Morgan is considered one of the players making up the numbers, but the Australian PGA champion is undeterred simply because he is laughing all the way to the bank. In five LIV events the mullet-wearing 22-year-old diehard Broncos fan has won more than […]
By Michael Davis ONE of the main people responsible for saving the Northcote Public Golf Course had no intention of gloating over his rivals. Spokesman for the Northcote Golf and Community Hub group, Bill Jennings, simply described the compromise voted on by the Darebin City Council as a victory for common sense. “Common sense has […]
THEY’RE golf’s ultimate power couple. The only problem is their unabashed love of sport actually keeps them off the golf course, rather than on it. And despite golf being one of their great loves, life does come first. Oh, and cricket as well. In case you’re still guessing, I am referring to a couple of […]
THE excited chatter among members at Victoria’s Patterson River Golf Club (PRGC) continues to grow as they settle into the club’s newly renovated 19th hole. PRGC membership and operations manager Jessica Gagliardi said the club’s directors had identified that the previous bistro was a little tired. So, after consultation with its membership base, the club […]
CAROLYN Jones won’t ever forget the first time she met her future husband. She was at school in Grafton (NSW) in the mid-1950s when ‘new boy’ Peter Jones turned up after his dad, a policeman, was transferred to the town. “I first met Peter at school in Grafton,” Carolyn recalled. “When I was about 14 […]
By Peter Owen KAI Komulainen, the gifted Gold Coast youngster with the classic golf swing, stood on the 10th tee in the final round of the world’s biggest international junior tournament and, for a brief few seconds, allowed himself to think about winning. He’d just eagled the par-5 ninth hole at California’s famous Torrey Pines […]
THERE was some serious golf played and loads of fun and laughter at the Champions of the Murray final played at Tocumwal Golf and Bowls Club. More than 50 finalists from the qualifying partner clubs took part in the final with Cobram Barooga Golf Club’s Carolyn Huggins and Margaret Rhode edging out Kristine Geary and […]
By Peter Owen IF the goal was to attract visiting golfers to Queensland during the quieter winter period, then this year’s Sunshine Coast Winter Classic ticked all the boxes. A sellout field turned up to play four of the region’s premier golf courses in a 72-hole amateur tournament aimed at club golfers. Players travelled from […]
FORMER television personality and politician, Derryn Hinch, would often end a story with the words, “shame, shame, shame” after someone had been wronged. Well, shame on the Royal and Ancient Golf Club for barring Greg Norman, a two-time Open Championship winner, from attending the traditional champions’ dinner at the 150th Open played at St Andrews. […]
By Peter Owen GRAEME Miller, the founder and president of the Invincibles Sunshine Coast Junior Golf Tour, remembers when Cameron Smith, a skinny 10-year-old with a handicap that matched his age, turned up for his first junior event. “He was a delightful young fellow,” Miller recalls. “He was always thinking of others, always helping – […]
