AT Eastwood Golf Club, tucked beneath Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges, septuagenarian Trevor Skerry delivered the sort of round most golfers only fantasise about.
The 78-year-old returned a remarkable 47 Stableford points to run away with the Wednesday competition, prompting good-natured cries of “bandit” from fellow members as he handed in his scorecard.
Skerry, who plays off a handicap of 26, could only laugh.
“I just had one of those days you dream of where nothing could go wrong,” he said.
The scorecard told its own story: one four-pointer, nine three-pointers and eight two-point holes – a model of consistency.
Trevor Skerry poses on the putting green with his “red-hot” putter.
The putter, he admitted, was red-hot that day.
“I hardly missed a putt. You know what they say, ‘drive for show, putt for dough,’” grinned Skerry, who only recently returned to golf following a year-long layoff for a hip replacement.
“I used to play off 13 once, but I had to take 12 months off for the surgery.”
A 32-year member at Eastwood, Skerry has ticked off just one hole-in-one in that time – on the 137-metre par-3 14th – and maintains a refreshingly relaxed approach to his golf game.
He plays every Wednesday and in the club’s 12-hole Friday comp … and doesn’t step onto the practice fairway unless absolutely necessary.
“The only time I’ve been on the practice fairway is if I slice my ball on the ninth hole,” he joked.
While delighted with his own performance, Skerry confessed to feeling a touch of sympathy for a friend who had posted 43 points and was prematurely celebrating in the clubhouse.
“My mate was sitting there having a drink with a big smile on his face when I walked in,” Skerry recalled. “I said, ‘what are you so happy about?’ He said he had 43 points and I said, ‘well, you’d better buy me a beer because I had 47.’
“And that’s when they started to call me a bandit.”
Chief writer David Newbery has been living, breathing and writing and editing golf for more than 30 years. His extensive knowledge of the game comes from covering golf around the world. Hired by Inside Golf in 2009, David previously worked as the editor of The Golfer for 25 years and before that worked for numerous daily newspapers in Australia and overseas. The Brisbane-based journalist describes his golf game as “a work in progress”, but has had the privilege of playing golf with some of the game’s best players including nine-time major winner Gary Player. David enjoys travelling, reading, music, photography and spending time with family and friends – on and off the golf course. 
