Ossie Moore has announced his retirement from the golfing industry.
WHEN golf professional Ossie Moore blacked out at the wheel of his Mercedes sedan not far from his Gold Coast home, it was lucky the car was travelling at only 40kph.
Even so, when the Mercedes left the road and hit a tree it was a write-off, and Moore spent a week in hospital.
But it could have been so much worse for the popular golfer, who travelled the world as a touring pro before becoming a commentator, and later a highly respected club professional and mentor.
Moore’s brush with death came two years ago, just after he’d accepted an offer to become general manager of The Grand Golf Club, the Gold Coast’s premier members-only club, with one of the country’s finest golf courses.
When he was in hospital, doctors discovered Moore had cardiac arrhythmia, a condition that occurs when the heart beats too fast or too slow – or, as was the case with Moore, when it stops beating at all.
After several operations – including one unfortunate episode when a wire pierced the wall of his heart while a surgeon was installing a pacemaker – and a change of medication, Moore’s heart issues now seem to be behind him.
But no doubt they had a role to play in his decision last month to retire from the golf industry after a career that began on the Gold Coast where, apart from seven years playing on the European Tour, he’s lived all his life.
“We live on acreage and there’s a lot of work for me to do,” Moore, 66, said. “But I’ll still play golf and I love lawn bowls. We don’t intend doing much travelling, though – I did enough of that when I was playing.”
Moore was still studying at Miami High when he won the Australian schoolboys championship, and still a teenager when he won two club championships at Southport Golf Club.
He took up a scholarship to study at university in the United States, before returning to capture the Australia Amateur Championship at Royal Adelaide in 1981.
Moore was also a member of Royal Queensland Golf Club, and won both the junior and senior club championships there before turning professional in 1982.
He won his first professional tournament, the Nedlands Masters in Perth, in 1984, and a year later topped the Australasian PGA Tour’s Order of Merit – one of his proudest achievements.
“I didn’t win a single tournament that year, but I still won the Order of Merit,” he said. “I think I had eight top-fives and didn’t miss a top-10. I played very consistently.
“The following year I won two tournaments and finished only third in the Order of Merit.”
His OOM success took him overseas where he campaigned on the European Tour until 1991, when he lost his card, failed to win it back at Q School, and returned home. It also gained him starts in the British Open, the US Open and US PGA Championships.
While in the US he was listed to play in the Kemper Open at Congressional Golf Club in Maryland, where he ran into his old Royal Queensland mate Greg Norman.
“Hey, Ossie, what are you doing here?” Norman asked. And when Moore told him he was there for just the one event, Norman asked if he would like to play in other tournaments. Moore said he would, and Norman replied: “I’ll give someone a phone call.”
Before he knew it, Moore had gained starts in the Canadian Open at Glen Abbey and two other PGA Tour events. “Being the No 1 golfer in the world sure carries some weight,” Moore said.
The pair have remained good friends and Moore is a staunch supporter of the two-time British Open champion.
A successful tournament professional, Ossie Moore was more than competitive with the best players of his era.
“Norman will do 60 great things, then perhaps one that’s a bit controversial, and the media will focus on that one thing. It’s so unfair,” Moore said.
In 1986 Moore won the Victorian Open and the first of his two Queensland PGA titles. His second came in 1992. He also won the Australian Matchplay Championship in 1989 and represented Australia in the 1987 World Cup.
Moore was still competing on the Australasian Tour in 1995 when tour officials offered him a spot in their television commentary team, on the condition that he give up playing.
He agreed, and spent the next 20 years providing commentary on Australian events. “I loved every minute of it,” he said. “I knew all the players and loved being around them.”
Away from the commentary, Moore was involved in international golf academies and teaching at Sanctuary Cove before being offered a position as golf coordinator at The Grand Golf Club in the Gold Coast hinterland. It was a role that gave him time to continue commentating.
He remained at The Grand for 19 years – as a teacher, golf professional and golf coordinator. In 2023 he was appointed general manager, placed on a six-month trial, and given the option to make the role permanent, an opportunity cut short by his heart issues.
Looking back on an extraordinary career in golf, Moore says he has no regrets, cherishes the memory of playing two rounds of golf with Arnold Palmer, and values the lifelong friends he has made.
He’s touched that The Grand made him an honorary member on his retirement, providing him with the opportunity to continue playing there – something he says he’ll do a couple of times a week.
He’ll also be a regular at the Helensvale Bowls Club, playing a sport he discovered more than a dozen years ago.
And that’s where he does have a regret. “I should have started playing bowls much earlier,” he said. “They say it’s a sport for old-timers, but if you’re over 35 you’ll never make a national team. I’m just too old.”
