By Peter Owen
Having shared the stage with stars like Shirley Bassey, Michael Buble, Wayne Newton, K. D. Lang and Hugh Jackman, Greg Spence can lay claim to being one of Australia’s finest trumpet players.
You may have seen him on Dancing With The Stars, Hey Hey It’s Saturday, the Logie Awards and Channel 9’s Carols by Candlelight. Greg Spence is trumpeting royalty.
But golf? Well, that’s something entirely different.
Greg, who now lives in a beachside apartment at Coolum after moving from Melbourne, has been a golfer for 35 years – hitting the course only occasionally and, in his own words, playing ‘very crappy’ golf.
When he arrived on the Sunshine Coast, he decided to take the game a little more seriously. He joined Peregian as a Lifestyle member and started practicing.Greg, who teaches trumpet online, has never been afraid to take the path less trod.
A right hander all his life – at all things – Greg decided he would in future play golf left-handed.
He talks about ‘neuroplasticity’ and the brain’s remarkable ability to adapt. When we learn something new, he says, we rewire our brain to adapt to new circumstances. Do it often enough and it becomes automatic.
Greg put it to the test.
Without a coach or anyone to supervise his progress, he daily visited Peregian’s practice range, hitting hundreds of balls – all left-handed – and he gradually honed a new swing.
“I’m absolutely certain my swing now is better than it was when I played right-handed,” he said.
He entered the Sunshine Coast Spring Classic – a 72-hole tournament played across four of the Sunshine Coast’s finest courses – and it was with some trepidation he lined up on the first tee on the first day at Maroochy River.
But he’d played 18 holes of golf every day for a fortnight leading up to the event, launched numerous balls at a screen he’d assembled on his balcony, and he was ready.Greg smashed his first drive down the middle of the fairway and, for the next four hours, showed just how much his brain had adapted.
He returned a score of 40 stableford points – equal with eventual Classic winner Richard Robinson and three more than any other competitor – and was the clear leader of B grade as the players headed for the second day’s play at Twin Waters.
“I didn’t get carried away with my performance at Maroochy River, though I certainly enjoyed playing well,” Greg said. “It’s all part of a six-month project. You have your good days and you have your bad days.”
Greg found out about the bad days when he visited Twin Waters.He managed to accumulate only 20 stableford points, with only one other player recording fewer. He went on to score 24 points at Twin Waters and 19 at Peregian.But Greg was not upset. “This project is an emotional roller-coaster,” he said. “But I believe in it and I’ll stick to it.”
And he can always tell the doubters about the day the trumpeter led the field in the very first Sunshine Coast Spring Classic. Playing left-handed.
Golf as it was traditionally played
Clad in traditional garb and carrying bags that looked older than themselves, 22 golfers gathered at Cooroy in October to pay homage to the history of the game they love.
Cooroy Golf Club hosted the Sunshine Coast Hickory Championship, attracting 18 visitors from Brisbane, who took on four locals for the title.
They played on a specially designed composite course – shorter than Cooroy’s normal layout – as they competed for the Bobby Jones Trophy.The event was won by Greg Melifont, who also backed up with a prize for the best dressed player.
Cooroy’s Gratham Leatherbarrow, who has been a hickory club devotee for most of his life, said it was wonderful to see so many golfers playing the game as it was originally meant to be played.He invited anybody who would like to try hickory golf to turn up at Cooroy about noon on any Thursday, and they’ll be looked after.
When you’re on a bad thing, stick to it
Sometimes a lesson with a golf pro can do horrible things to your game. You’re concentrating on so many things that simply hitting the ball cleanly becomes an impossible challenge.
It’s a familiar scenario to many of us, including Noosa member Bill McCarthy, who sought our teaching pro Jimmy Douris for help after months of poor scores and frustrating rounds.
“Jimmy pointed out all the things I was doing wrong, and showed me how to correct them.
“But nothing happened,” he said. “I was still getting scores of 23 or 25 stableford points and I told my mates, ‘this is it. I’m giving golf away’.” But he didn’t. Instead he persevered, remembered Douris’ words of advice, and his game slowly began to come together.
Then, in last week’s Tuesday Club competition, everything clicked, and McCarthy shot the round of his life – 21 stableford points on the front nine and a remarkable 27 on the back, for a fabulous total of 48 points.
“I was a bit embarrassed by it, to be honest,” he said. “I heard people muttering things like ‘who’s that burglar?’ and ‘why aren’t you wearing a balaclava?’ But everyone’s entitled to one good round, aren’t they?”
McCarthy lost six strokes from his handicap, but he’s not concerned. He’s now looking forward to getting back onto the course to show his mates his extraordinary round was no fluke.
Scott’s back in action
Adam Scott, sidelined for the past fortnight with Covid-19, has entered this week’s Houston Open – the final tournament before the US Masters at Augusta,
Scott normally rests the week before the Masters, but has played only a handful of tournaments since the PGA Tour resumed, and desperately needs the hit-out.
He famously won the Masters in 2013, the first Australian to take the revered tournament.
Smit set for second Sunday success
Cooroy’s Andre Smit, the 22-handicapper who qualified for Noosa Springs’ rich Sunday Series final after recording last month’s best winning stableford score, is at it again.On Sunday he recorded 42 points in the Universal Property-sponsored event to stake an early claim for November honours.
The Sunday Series is conducted every weekend with prizes presented to the weekly winners. But every player – male and female – seeks to record the best stableford score for the month.
Those lucky golfers go into the December final, where the outstanding prize is free golf for a year at Noosa Springs and Links Hope Island.
Local golfers – those living on the Sunshine Coast and Gympie – are able to play in the Sunday Series for just $79, which includes an electric cart, plus the competition fee.
Coco’s amazing form continues
Noosa Springs’ amazing 10-year-old, Coco Moore, scored her second competition win in a fortnight on Saturday when she shot nett 69 to win the Monthly Medal. Coco, who has been swinging a golf club almost since she could walk, won the ladies stableford event at Noosa Springs on October 17 with 41 points.
Coco’s sister, the very promising 14-year-old Sunday Moore, finished third on Saturday with a nett 71. Sunday has a handicap of eight, while Coco will likely never play off 25 again.Noosa Springs golf coach Peter Heiniger described Sunday and Coco as ‘great kids’, who spent every spare moment after school practicing.“They enjoy golf and always seem to be having fun,” he said. “It’s wonderful that they’re succeeding.”
Club competitions
NOOSA
Tuesday, 27 October
Men’s Tuesday Club, stableford: A grade – Craig Lena 39c/b, Karl Gottschalk 39c/b, Rory Bourke 39, Ian Burrough 38c/b; B grade – Jim Scholes 41, Dan Harmer 39, Ken Reed 38c/b, Robert Tasker 38c/b; C grade – Bill McCarthy 48, Graeme Martin 42, Stephen Price 40, Jerome Stuart 39. Rundown to 34c/b.Saturday, 31 October
Men’s 4BBB stroke: Jacob Boulden & Sam Boulden 56, Neil Prideaux & Paul Porter 58, John D’Arcy & Roland Dean 61c/b. Rundown to 65. Women’s: Arlene Penlington & Heather Alsop 66, Merilyn Thomas & Lisa Joseph 67c/b, Jill Hill & Rosemary Caffyn 67.
NOOSA SPRINGS
Wednesday, 28 October
Men’s stableford: Brian O’Keefe 43, Robert Mayfield 39, Darryl Dent 38; women’s stableford: Mally Jane 38, Anne Smith 36, Helen McKenzie 33.
Noosa v Hope Island Men’s Challenge: John Chandler 39c/b, Steve Walker 39c/b, Paul Matthews 39; Women’s Challenge: Birgit Wehrenberg 45, Rosie Randall 43, Annette Philp 38.
Saturday, 31 October
Men’s Monthly Medal, stroke: Andrew Horner 70, John Gavin 72c/b, Ben Kearney 72c/b; women’s Monthly Medal: Coco Moore 69, Tracey Carter 71c/b, Sunday Moore 71.Sunday 1 November
Men’s Universal Property Sunday Series, stableford: Andre Smit 42, Andrew Stewart 37, Gil Hoskins 36; women’s: Noi Pike 39, Dana Angus 37, Janine de Jong 36c/b.
COOROY
Tuesday, 27 October
Women’s stroke (9 holes): Sue Austenberg 33, Aileen Morton 35. Rundown to 37.Wednesday, 28 October
Vets Monthly Medal, stroke: A grade – Peter Piggott 67, Peter Buchbach 69c/b, Gary Menyweather 69; B grade – Ron Blount 69, Darryl Ayers 71, Dave Lyons 72c/b; C grade – Andrew Aves 66, Jim Henderson 71c/b, Matt Saunders 71. Rundown to 73.
Thursday, 29 October
Women’s stableford: Chris Michael 35, Weang Brown 34. Rundown to 33.
Saturday, 31 October
Men’s 3-person Ambrose: W. Patston, K. Brittain, T. Cairns; A. Morton, D. Tink, R. Gibson.
