By Peter Owen
Dallas Furner, who has seemingly spent more time over the past two decades guiding the direction of golf on the Sunshine Coast rather than playing the game, reminded everyone of his ability when he scored a remarkable net 62 in a club competition at Noosa last week.
Playing in Noosa’s popular Tuesday Club, Furner was superb, winning the B grade category by three strokes, and returning the day’s best net score.
“Yeah, but I was playing off 14,” said the modest Furner, who for most of his golfing career had been a single-figure handicapper.
It was a recent golfing foray to Bargara, Bundaberg and Maryborough with a group of seven mates that was the catalyst for his return to form.
“I’d been playing only about once a week, and I wasn’t doing much,” he said. “But while I was away I started to hit a few good shots and sink a few putts. I think it was playing for three days straight that got my game back on track.”
Furner, who set up his own plastering business just over three years ago – another reason his golf has deteriorated, he says – is a legend in golf administration in our region.
He’s been the Sunshine Coast zone president for seven years, the (Sunshine Coast and South Burnett) district president for 16 years, and a director of Noosa Golf Club for 30 years, where he is also a life member.And he’s heading back to single figures. Furner’s heroics last week saw his Golf Australia handicap slashed from 13.8 to 10.3. That’s good enough for him to be off nine next time he plays – off the white tees, anyway.
Luke Parker hangs on for victory
IT wasn’t a fear of failing that concerned Luke Parker as he took a three-stroke lead into the final round of the Queensland PGA Trainee Championship at Windaroo Lakes last week – it was of not fulfilling his destiny.
“I’d worked so hard to get to that point,” he said. “I’d contended in events before and fallen away. There I was in the lead, and I just didn’t want to let the chance of winning slip through my fingers.”
He needed haven’t worried. The first year trainee professional from Maroochy River, who played his junior golf at Peregian, stuck to his guns for a one-stroke win in an event of enormous significance to young professional golfers.
Parker, who picked up a welcome $6000 prize, shot rounds of 70, 71, 72 and 74 for a one over-par total of 287 and a one-stroke victory over Mackay’s Elliott Beel. He put his name alongside previous winners Greg Norman and Rod Pampling.
His story is that of a young man who lost his way after an outstanding junior career, questioned whether golf was a viable employment option, then found his inspiration from a couple of fellow members, wise in the way of playing golf for a living.
“When I joined Maroochy River I was playing terrible golf,” Luke recalls. “I’d lost confidence and really questioned my ability.”
But playing regularly with David Grenfell and Craig Jones – former professionals who had tasted success on world tours – gave him the inspiration he needed.
“I saw how they played the game and particularly their strategy,” he said. “I began to concentrate on playing, rather than making a perfect swing, and learned how to practice effectively.
“I had some success in A grade pennant, and then I won the club championship. I realised I could play this game.”
Club professional Sean Seymore offered Parker a traineeship, and the young man hasn’t looked back. Now he’s setting his sights on loftier goals.
“My win in the Trainee Championship gets me into the Queensland PGA next year, and several other events,” he said. “I’ll be seeking as many starts in tournaments as I can get.”
Parker has always dreamed of becoming a touring professional and is confident he’s heading in the right direction.
“My win last week was a vindication that what I’ve been doing is working,” he said. “The hard work is paying off. It was the best thing I’ve ever done – by far.”
Mt Coolum trainee T. J. King (73, 73, 74, 75) took fourth place, while the low round of the final day belonged to Headland’s Jordan McDonald, whose two under-par 72 helped him into 11th placing.
Coco, 10, upholds the family tradition
Coco Moore, the youngest of a remarkable trio of golfing sisters, showed she’s inherited the family talent by winning last Saturday’s women’s stableford competition at Noosa Springs with 41 points.
Coco, just 10 years old, played off 25 – a handicap she’ll never see again – and was, of course, the youngest player in the field.
Sister Sunday is already an accomplished golfer with a handicap of seven, while eldest sibling Naomi was an outstanding junior a few years ago.
Coast star takes a break
Lucas Herbert, after a disrupted campaign in the US and Europe when he lived out of a suitcase, is completing his second week of quarantine before returning to his Marcus Beach home for a few weeks rest.
He’ll stay on the Sunshine Coast until the end of November, when he resumes his European Tour campaign in the Middle East, the scene of his most significant victory – the Dubai Desert Classic in January.
That win catapulted him to No 64 in world rankings, and into third place on the Race to Dubai standings – the European Tour’s order of merit.
He returned to the Coast and sat out the coronavirus-forced disruption to world golf before heading off to the US to compete in a couple of WGA events and the US PGA Championship in New York.
“I had five weeks off between the PGA and US Open and I focused on getting myself in a good head space to be able to play under tournament conditions, such as not getting too hard on myself after making mistakes,“ he said.
After finishing a commendable 31st in the US Open, he returned to Europe for the Irish Open, where he finished 7th and the Scottish Open, where he was 4th after a remarkable final round six under-par 65.
Herbert is now 9th on the Race to Dubai standings, with the top 10 players earning big prize money at the end of the season, as well as invitations to some of the world’s top tournaments.
“I try not to think about the standings too much, but that being said I want to have a solid finish to my year in Dubai,“ Herbert said.
McCulloch falls short by a single point
James McCulloch played outstanding golf to score 40 points and win last weekend’s Universal Property Sunday Series event at Noosa Springs. But, though McCulloch happily claimed the winner’s prize, his effort wasn’t quite good enough to get him to the final stage of the series.
That honour goes to the player who has the month’s best winning score – and, right now, that rests with Cooroy golfer Andre Smit, who won the previous weekend with a score of 41 points.
The players – male and female – with the best winning score each month compete in December for the grand prize, a year’s free golf at Noosa Springs and Links Hope Island.
Visitors are welcome to compete and, if they’re local, they need pay only $79 to play, which includes the cost of an electric cart.
Our biggest golf events cancelled
Australia’s biggest golf events – the Australian PGA Championship, the Australian Open and the Women’s Australian Open – have been cancelled due to Covid-19.
The three events were due to be played in February, but the impacts of coronavirus, most notably in assembling international fields and ensuring the safety of players, spectators and officials, has forced the decision.
The Australian Senior Amateur Championships – both men’s and women’s – have also been cancelled.
Giblett does Noosa proud
George Giblett, with rounds of 75, 72, 71 and 72, was the only Noosa representative to make the 36-hole cut at the Keperra Bowl – one of Queensland’s most significant amateur events.
Giblett, with a four round total of two over-par 290, finished 20th in the elite field – 27 shots behind Elvis Smylie, the remarkable lefthander who shot a final round 10-under 62 for a runaway 13-shot win.
Noosa Springs’ Dino Degotardi (76, 74) failed to make the 36-hole cut.
In the women’s tournament, Caboolture’s Justice Bosio, 16, scored the biggest win of her career. She won by a shot after her nearest challengers, Hye Jun Park and Minji Kweon, both bogeyed the final hole.
Competition results
NOOSA
Tuesday, 13 October
Men’s Tuesday Club, stroke: A grade – James Anderson 68c/b, Alan Martin 68, Benjamin Palfery 69c/b, Nathan Howie 69; B grade – Dallas Furner 62, Craig Smith 65, Colin Myers 66, Peter Baynes 70c/b; C grade – Christian Pearce 67c/b, Aldo Zuzza 67, Lee Clayton 68c/b, Frank Hull 68. Rundown to 71c/b.Wednesday, 14 October
Men’s Vets stableford: A grade – Jaro Cemy 43, Edmond Bonnici 42, Colin Myers 40c/b; B grade – Matthew Mcnally 43, John Duke 42, David Young 40c/b; C grade – John Evans 44c/b, Colin Dean 44, David Abey 43. Rundown to 37c/b.Saturday, 17 October
Men’s stableford: A grade – Justin Morgan 42, John Mulquiney 41c/b, Paul Venning 41; B grade – Graeme Caffyn 41c/b, Bruce Hallett 41, Robert Knott 40; C grade – Jim Harpley 43, Jerome Stuart 42, Evan Millar 41. Rundown to 36c/b. Women’s stableford: Jennifer Eborall 40, Paula Jeffrey 38c/b, Lisa Joseph 38c/b.
NOOSA SPRINGS
Monday, 12 October
Men’s Seniors Monthly Medal, stroke: Michael Weston 65, Martin Cook 67, John Krimmer 68; women’s: Toni Liddy 70, Lee Emery 71, Lindley Stafford 71.
Wednesday, 14 October
Men’s stableford: Peter Butt 40, Douglas Oates 39, Michael Mason 37; women’s: Margaret Hart 37, Vivien Dembo 37, Dianne Kemp 35.Saturday, 17 October
Men’s stableford: Craig Stott 42c/b, Ben Kearney 42, Philip Starkey 41; women’s stableford: Coco Moore 41, Jill Yeatman 40, Diana Foulsham 39.
Sunday, 18 October
Men’s Universal Property Sunday Series, stableford: James McCulloch 40, Gil Hoskins 37, Phil Harrison 36; women’s: Di Cutting 36, Dana Angus 35, Lorna Gibson 34.
COOROY
Tuesday, 13 October
Women’s Tuesday Club, 9-hole stableford: Jenny Tucker 21, Juanita Langford 20. Rundown to 17.
Wednesday, 14 October
Men’s vets, stableford: A grade: Terry Magill 39, Richard Gibson 34, Brett LeMoy 33c/b; B grade – Don Clelland 38c/b, Peter Palmer 38c/b, Kin Bannikoff 38; C grade – Rod Roemermann 36c/b, Geoff Cowan 36c/b, Glen Johnstone 36. Rundown to 33.
Thursday, 15 October
Women’s stableford: Anita Highland 39, Maria Taurer 38. Rundown to 31.
Saturday, 17 October
Men’s 4BBB stableford: C. Gannon & P. Gannon 50, G. Menyweather & G. Cowan 49. Rundown to 43; women’s: Maria Taurer & Jocelyn Rabjohns 43c/b, Tina Thomas & Aileen Morton 43.
