Invincibles Tour draws curtain on 20 years of developing golf champions

By Peter Owen

AFTER 20 years, founder and president Graeme Miller has called time on the Invincibles Sunshine Coast Junior Golf Tour – a unique organisation that launched the career of Open champion Cameron Smith and hundreds of other talented Queensland golfers.

“I’m not getting any younger and the workload has become extremely difficult,” said Miller, who is in his 70s. “I’ve reached out to people who I thought might be able to take over, but I couldn’t find anybody with the time or inclination.”

Miller, a former Victorian who ‘retired’ to the Sunshine Coast in 1997, established The Invincibles Tour in 2003, providing coaching, encouragement and guidance, setting up an organised schedule of events and allowing young golfers to reach their potential in a professional and safe environment.

“Our juniors are taught the rules, scoring and etiquette of the game while receiving guidance on the appropriate people skills required for golf and life in general,” Miller said. “We strive to give our members the best opportunity to follow their dreams.”

One of the earliest members of the tour was Cameron Smith, then a 10-year-old protégé who made the trek up the Bruce Highway from Brisbane for coaching and to compete in Invincibles events. It was at one of the clinics that he met Grant Field, the Pelican Waters-based coach who has mentored the three-time Australian PGA champion ever since.

Other stars to have come through the Invincibles Tour include Australian PGA champion Jed Morgan, tournament professionals Louis Dobbelaar, Cassie Porter, T.J. King, Shae Wools-Cobb, Doug Klein and Charlie Dann, outstanding amateurs Justice Bosio, Blaike Perkins, Tyler Duncan, Rhianna Lewis and Sarah Wilson, and current junior champions Harry Takis, Kate McFarlane and Shyla Singh.

“I take great pride in seeing so many of our members achieve remarkable things on the golf course and, at the same time, develop into outstanding men and women,” Miller said.

Some families even relocated to the Sunshine Coast – one from as far away as Perth – just so their sons and daughters could join the Invincibles Tour, where the emphasis has always been as much on integrity and sportsmanship as developing a sound golf swing.

Miller said the Invincibles had achieved the goals that led to its formation.

“The things we sought to establish for young golfers are there, and set so firmly in place that I have great confidence they will continue long into the future,” he said.

Miller said the region’s zone and district golf associations had pledged to set up a new junior tour, based on the Invincibles operation, and provide support and sponsorship for the calendar of events.

“The future for junior golf on the Sunshine Coast is secure and exciting,” Miller said. 

He said the Invincibles would take up a new role – offering scholarships and providing assistance to junior golfers who would most benefit from the support.

“We will be setting up a skilled panel of four members with a broad knowledge and expertise about the running of junior golf in this region and they will vote on who will be the recipients of these scholarships.

“Juniors we will be looking at will be those who display the appropriate people skills and who are focused on achieving their best – on and off the course – while protecting the traditions of the game of golf.”

Miller said he had appreciated the support of Golf Australia, Golf Queensland, the PGA, zone and district associations, his band of sponsors, and the generosity of golf clubs throughout south-east Queensland who made their courses available over the past 20 years.