By Peter Owen
Paul Liddy won the Calvin Klein men’s A grade championship at Noosa Springs on Sunday, but was quick to claim his wife Toni was the real star of the family.
In a remarkable twist, Toni won the ladies B grade category of the 54-hole championship – and gallant Paul was quick to recognise her achievement.
“Besides,” he said, “I want to make sure I get my dinner tonight.”
Paul and Toni Liddy have been Noosa Springs members for four years, and concede their experience of the course may have played a part in their wins.
“I don’t think I played exceptionally well,” Paul said. “I just played smart.” His three rounds returned stableford scores of 34, 35 and 34, for a 54-hole total of 103.
“While some of the others blasted away with their drivers, I concentrated on keeping my ball in play. You’ve just got to hang in there,” he said.
The Calvin Klein A, B and C grade Championships are played at Noosa Springs late every year. They are contested by golfers from all over southeast Queensland and, normally, from interstate.
Despite Covid 19, entries this year were outstanding. Noosa Springs Golf Services Manager Warren Ellis said he had to turn away dozens of golfers who sought to register after the field had reached capacity.
Paul Liddy, 69, who retired to Noosa eight years ago after owning hotels in Sydney, has been a golfer since he was 10. He and Toni play at least three times a week – “I’d play every day if she’d let me” – and when he’s not golfing, he surfs Noosa’s beaches.
“We just play for fun,” Paul said. “Neither of us practices much.”
It is the third time they had each played in the A, B and C Grade Championships.
“It’s a lot of fun and we get to meet different people from other clubs,” Paul said.
Results were:
Men’s A grade: Paul Liddy 103, Russell Palmer 100, Alex Wheatley 100; B grade: Chris Wilson 104c/b, Frank Colbran 104, Chris Clarke 100; C grade: Kevin Bolitho 95 c/b, Bruce Shannon 95c/b, Bill Young 95c/b.
Women’s A grade: Silvana Phillips 102, Karen O’Brien 99, Jill Marrinan 97; B grade: Toni Liddy 110, Marie Gull 102, Tereza Holley 98; C grade – Helen Ringrose 111, Carol Yancey 105, Kim Galpin 104.
Greg reveals his secret to better golf
Greg Midolo – playing better golf than at any time in the past 50 years – wishes he’d joined Noosa Golf Club a few weeks earlier.
If he had, he’d have won last week’s Noosa’s Tuesday Club stableford competition, and happily pocketed the winner’s prize of $150.
Instead, his 41 points – two better than anybody else in A grade – was good enough only to see his handicap reduced by another stroke.
“I knew I wasn’t eligible to win anything on the day,” he said. “The prizemoney would have been nice but, really, all I’m trying to do is improve my game and get my handicap as low as I can.”
That’s something Greg has been doing regularly in recent weeks.
A 14-handicapper three months ago, Greg now plays off eight – and reckons he can get his handicap even lower.
He’s also a Maroochy River member – in fact, he won the midweek comp there the following day with 42 points – but decided to join Noosa because several of his mates were members.
“It’s a different sort of course to Maroochy River – more trees, tighter fairways and less wind – and I enjoy playing both courses,” said the Mt Coolum resident.
Greg, 63, puts his improved play down to the purchase of a new Scotty Cameron putter, a swing tip he picked up watching a coaching clinic on television, and his decision to use a three-wood, rather than driver, off most tees.
He also leaves his glove on while putting – something he says gives him greater confidence on the greens.
Young champs are going places
A 16-YEAR-old girl, who struggled to play to her 42 handicap a couple of years ago, has just won this year’s Peregian open championship – setting a course record of 73 in the process.
Sami Dryden, a young woman who takes her golf very seriously, shot rounds of 73 and 87 to take out the women’s championship.
And in a stunning result for the juniors, 17-year-old Adam van Dorsselaer won the men’s championship with rounds of 74 and 71 – another course record.
Sami’s father Matt, who usually caddies for his daughter, is amazed at her rapid improvement.
“At the end of her first year playing the game she’d cut her handicap from 42 to 20, then a year later to 10, and now it’s 4.7 or something,” he said. “She just keeps getting better.”
Sami, who is coached by Grant Field at Pelican Waters, is a junior member of Peregian, Noosa Springs and Maroochy River, and attends school at St Andrew’s, Peregian Springs.
Like Sami, Adam van Dorsselaer enjoys great support from his family.
Adam, who didn’t take up golf until he was 12, moved to the Sunshine Coast from Toowoomba, with his parents who are both school teachers.
Initially a student of teaching pro Ian Triggs at Brookwater, Adam now works with Dom Azzopardi, the coach of Lucas Herbert, one of the world’s most promising professionals.
One good hole pays off for Evan and his mates
Evan Millar and the rest of his foursome had, by their own admission, played pretty ordinary golf when they reached their final hole in last week’s Noosa Springs Skins event.
Evan and two of his mates parred the hole – the short par four 10th, a hole that’s not too difficult. With each of them having a shot, and with their team score being the sum of their three best individual scores, Evan’s group signed for an impressive nine points for that one hole.
Now, the beauty of Noosa Springs Skins is that nobody knows who’s won anything until all the scores are revealed at the presentation that follows.
The best team score on each hole wins four bottles of premium wine. If two or more teams tie, the prize jackpots to the next hole. If there’s another tie, it jackpots again, and again – until there’s an outright winner.
Evan Millar’s level of excitement rose as holes five, six, seven, eight and nine were all tied, and with the pot now worth 24 bottles of wine, the question was whether their nine points was good enough to win the 10th hole. In the end, it was.
“We let out a roar,” said Evan, a member of Noosa Golf Club and an occasional starter in the Skins games at Noosa Springs. “The organisers were good enough to pack the bottles into cartons so we could carry them to our cars.
“The wine will come in handy for Christmas.”
Evan and his group have already vowed to return when the series – four games are played each year – resumes in the New Year.
Ben in the mix at Maroochy River
Noosa’s Ben Palfrey shot an excellent four-over par 76 in testing conditions on Sunday to be the A grade nett runner-up in a hotly contested Maroochy River Open.
Palfrey, playing off a handicap of six, returned a nett 70 – two strokes behind Headland’s Andrew Stirling.
Outstanding amateur Zach Maxwell was the Open champion with an excellent par round of 72.
Maxwell, 20, from Brisbane’s Virginia, beat Warwick’s Kris McLennan by a single stroke in an event that attracted 195 players from south-east Queensland.
Lowood’s Nathan Edwards, who shot 93 from his 27 handicap, returned the day’s best nett score of 66, while Maroochy River’s Keith Horne (77) was the best performed Masters golfer.
NOOSA
Monday, 23 November
Women’s stableford: A grade – Marilyn Cliff 36, Heather Birt 35c/b; B grade – Trish Strang 38c/b, Delys Murray 38. Rundown to 32c/b. Women’s 9-hole stableford: Lynne Hancock 20, Maddy Nielsen 18c/b, Ann Tummon 18. Rundown to 17c/b.
Tuesday, 24 November
Men’s stableford: A grade – Alan Coey 39c/b, James Anderson 39c/b, Craig Strudwick 39c/b, Doug Rogers 39; B grade – Gary Tye 41, Adrian Ward 39, Jeremy Alkin 38c/b, Ralph Webster 38; C grade – Richard Henley 41c/b, Robert Tuffley 41, Andrew Aitken 40, Peter Turnbull 38c/b. Rundown to 36c/b.
Thursday, 26 November
Women’s 4-person ambrose: Tash Baker, Midge James, Thelma Snowdon & Maxine Mort 60; Orawan Millar, Jill Hill, Jennifer Eborall & Liv Dolan 60.375; Sandra Dover, Gayna Ryan, Fiona Watson & Ingrid Lancon 60.75. Rundown to 60.625.
Saturday, 28 November
Men’s stableford: A grade – Bronson White 41, Mike Quincey 39c/b, Ben Meredith 39; B grade – Brian Priebe 39, Ian Vardy 38c/b, Mathew Leahy 38c/b; C grade – Chris Townson 41c/b, Greg Steele 41, Jim Harpley 40. Rundown to 35c/b. Women’s stableford: Orawan Millar 37c/b, Paul Jeffrey 37, Rosemary Caffyn 36.
NOOSA SPRINGS
Monday, 23 November
Men’s stableford: Dick Whittington 44, Darry Dent 42, Mike Cawsey 41; women’s par: Judy Gosper +3c/b, Margaret Stawski +3, Irene Cordukes +2c/b.
Wednesday, 25 November
Men’s stableford: Peter Kemp 39, Robert Mayfield 37c/b, Paul Matthews 37c/b; women’s stableford: Dee Pugh 40, Joan Cairns 38, Jill Robson 37.
Saturday, 28 November
Calvin Klein Men’s A grade championship, stableford: Russell Palmer 39c/b, Alex Wheatley 39, Tim Marrinan 36; B grade: Steven Boulton 37, Frank Colbran 36, Peter Spencer 35c/b; C grade: John Boakes 35c/b, Paul Lowe 35, Bruce Shannon 34c/b; women’s A grade: Karen O’Brien 38, Chrissy Hordern 34c/b, Silvana Phillips 34; B grade: Toni Liddy 40, Jill Wilson 35c/b, Sharon Spencer 35c/b; C grade: Kim Galpin 39, Helen Ringrose 38c/b, Margaret Hart 38.
Sunday, 29 November
Calvin Klein Men’s A grade championship, stableford: Martin Scollon 36, John Scerri 35, Paul Liddy 34; B grade: Taureon Roston 36c/b, Chris Fraser 36, Chris Wilson 35; C grade: Kevin Bolitho 40, Alan Westacott 35c/b, Daryl Bates 35; women’s A grade: Julie Bell 34c/b, Angela Fong 34, Veronique Pin 32; B grade: Marie Gull 37, Toni Liddy 35c/b, Jenene Spencer 35; C grade: Helen Ringrose 38, Carol Yancey 37, Angela Gibson 36.
COOROY
Tuesday, 24 November
Women’s stableford, 9 holes: Kathy Butler 27, Weang Brown 21. Rundown to 18.
Wednesday, 25 November
Vets stableford: A grade – Jeff McDonald 44, Geoff Linde 40, Andy Stewart 39; B grade – Gary Dwyer 42, Peter Palmer 41, John Stewart 38c/b; C grade – Steve Howes 39, Jim Prendergast 38, Dave Chapman 37. Rundown to 37.
Thursday, 26 November
Women’s stroke: Wendy Morse 67, Fay Wiggins 68. Rundown to 71.
Be smart when you practice
TAKE THE TIP
So why do we practice? Simply because we all want to improve and lower our golf scores. However many golfers tend to practice poorly, which can hurt more than help.
We all live busy lives these days and finding time to practice can often be difficult. So when the opportunity arises to practice we have to make sure it’s as beneficial to our game as we possibly can. We can’t afford to waste time. For example there’s no use practicing our driver when we continually have 40 putts per round.
So how can we formalise the perfect practice plan?
Well, here’s your four point action plan to gain the most out of practice and lower your golf scores –
1 ) Chart your golf with a round analysis over your past 10 games. Data such as fairways and greens in regulation, number of putts and your success with up and downs around the green would be ideal.
2) Then book a one hour lesson with your friendly PGA professional and present to him or her the data from your round analysis to identify how best to improve your problem areas. You should also take any other information you think would be worthwhile.
3 ) Dedicate at least 2 x 1 hour sessions per week to practice the recommendations from your lesson. It may seem a lot but I find one morning before work and Sunday afternoon works well for most people.
4 ) Take a follow up lesson to track your improvement. Sometimes it might not be exactly how it may feel. You may even incorporate an on course lesson which is a great way to see how the improvements work under pressure. Making it work on the course is the real test.
Good Golfing.
PETE HEINIGER – Noosa Springs resident PGA teaching professional
