NOOSA Golf Club’s three best players – Toby Harding, George Giblett and Cooper Clarke – will seek spots in next week’s Queensland Open when they play in a hotly contested qualifying event at Pelican Waters on Monday.
The three golfers, who finished first, second and third in last year’s Noosa club championship, will vie for a handful of spots set aside for amateurs in the Queensland Open, to be played at Pelican Waters from Thursday to Sunday.
And they are all in top form.
Giblett, runner-up to Harding in the club championship, is just back from Hobart where he shot rounds of 76, 74, 74 and 71 in the Tasmanian Open last week for a 72-hole total of 11-over-par 295.
He is happy with his form and is keen to test his game against the best Australian-based golfers in the Queensland Open.
Clarke, 18, was an outstanding junior golfer and showed he was in peak form when he shot a four-under-par 68 in club competition at Noosa a fortnight ago. Playing off a handicap of one Clarke tallied 41 stableford points to win the A grade trophy, with professional Shane Healey three points away in second place.
And last week Harding won the Gold Coast Open, shooting an excellent four-under-par 68 at Southport to take the event from a crack field of the state’s best amateurs.
Harding, Giblett and Clarke were members of last year’s successful Noosa A grade pennants team, with all of them scoring wins in Noosa’s 5/2 victory over Headland in the final.
About a dozen talented Sunshine Coast amateurs will seek on Monday to qualify for a place in the Queensland Open, which is being played at Pelican Waters for the second year in a row.
Noosa professional Simon Tooman is a reserve for the event, while Noosa Springs-based pro Ryley Martin will seek to pre-qualify on Monday.
Cooroy dismayed at recommendation
COOROY Golf Club officials are bitterly disappointed that Noosa Council engineers have recommended the council reject a $120 million retirement resort proposal that would have guaranteed the club’s long-term future.
Club secretary Andrew Dick said neither council staff, nor any Noosa councillor, had even visited the course to inspect the site of the proposed redevelopment, or to seek further information about it.
“This is a multi-million dollar development,” Mr Dick said. “It should not be treated as a trivial matter.”
As part of the deal, developer GemLife agreed to build a new clubhouse, Pro Shop, storage for 40 golf carts, a new sealed carpark, an entry road, make course improvements and had guaranteed 246 new golf memberships for a period of 10 years.
“I don’t think the council really understands the benefits this development offers to the golf club and the community,” Mr Dick said.
Councillors met last Thursday to vote on the staff recommendation to reject the application because of environmental concerns, and because they felt it did not comply with the Noosa town plan.
GemLife, however, successfully sought a ‘time out’ provision which effectively delayed a decision until March 18.
Mr Dick said councillors had originally been given only three days to consider the staff recommendation before being expected to vote.
Nobody will forget John Piercy
THOUGH it’s been played at Newcastle for the past 15 years, and at Twin Waters for more than a decade before that, everybody knows the Jack Newton Celebrity Classic is truly a Noosa event.
First played at Tewantin-Noosa in 1979, the three-day charity tournament has become Australia’s best known, and longest-running, pro-am event. In its 41-year history, it has raised more than $6.3 million for charity.
In those early days, when Prime Minister Bob Hawke, clad in shorts, long socks and golf shirt, partied long into the night with Jack Newton and his mates, the event was run by Noosa identity and golfing tragic John Piercy and his wife Sue.
Even after the Classic moved to Twin Waters, John continued to run charity golf days for Noosa district surf clubs. And, following his death in 2000, the John Piercy Memorial charity day continued to raise money, spawning the Smile for a Child charity.
This week Noosa Golf Club honoured John Piercy’s memory when its Tuesday Club – a club that John himself founded in the late 1970s – staged its annual John Piercy Memorial, a single stableford event that incorporated a team competition. The winning quartet of players won entry to the Smile for a Child charity day to be hosted by Noosa Golf Club later in the year.
Josh is just a natural
HE’LL always be best known for his exploits on a surfboard, but former world champion longboarder Josh Constable is no slouch on the golf course.
An ambassador member at Noosa Springs, Constable last week scored 38 stableford points to win the resort’s Tuesday competition. Playing off a handicap of five, the six-time Australian longboard champion went around in 75 strokes.
When he’s not on the golf course, Constable, 40, runs his own surfboard design and production company, Creative Army.
Register for Skins
THERE’S still time to register for the Noosa Springs Skins Series on Wednesday, March 31 – an opportunity for golfers to play serious golf in a fun setting.
It’s a skins-type team event with a prize of four bottles of wine for the best stableford score by a team on each hole. If two or more teams get the same score on a hole, the prize jackpots to the next hole.
There’s a draw for $1500 worth of advertising from Southern Cross Austereo, and if anybody holes out at the 4th they’ll win a corporate membership valued at $2250.
The cost is $85 ($39 for members) and that includes lunch and post-game nibbles. Tee-off is at 12 noon.
Club competitions
NOOSA
Monday, February 22
Women’s Open Day, stroke: A grade – Lynette Wong 68, Jenny Smallcombe 70; B grade – Marilyn Leslie 75, Margaret Elkes 77c/b; C grade – Elisabetta Ryan 74, Susan Hadenham 75.
Tuesday, February 23
Men’s stableford: A grade – James Cervi 44, Ray Egge 40, Hugh Dolan 39c/b, Ken Robinson 39; B grade – Derek Pousette 38, Tony Haack 37, Shane Taylor 36, Tim Dolan 35c/b; C grade – Robert Paech 41, Lee Clayton 40c/b, Jim Lawrence 40, Mark Buckley 38.
Wednesday, February 24
Vets stableford: A grade – Ian Sharman 41, Kevin O’Farrell 39c/b, David Murray 39; B grade – Mark Chapman 41c/b, Murray Joseph 41, Roland Dean 38c/b; C grade – Michael Tsolakkis 39, Martin Taylor 35c/b, Doug Pinnington 35c/b.
Thursday, February 25
Women’s 4-ball stableford: Task Baker & Jennifer Eborall 44, Tracy Whitbread & Christine Baker 43c/b, Allana Moore & Donna Coey 43.
Saturday, February 27
Men’s 4-ball aggregate: Keith Howard & Rex Lawn 74c/b, Paul Cox & Matthew Gunn 74, Alan Coey & Leigh Hancock 73; women’s 4-ball aggregate: Paula Jeffrey & Jennifer Eborall 67, Rosanne Chisholm & Noreen Scanlon 66c/b, Bettina Hammant & Mandy Webb 66.
NOOSA SPRINGS
Monday, February 22
Men’s Senior Monthly Medal, stroke: Robert Hobson 68, Paul Liddy 69, Bob Layton 71; women’s: Susie Lee 65, Niki Matthews 71, Dianne Hudson 72.
Tuesday, February 23
Men’s stableford: Josh Constable 38, John Taylor 37, Michael Collins 35; women’s stableford: Janine De Jong 31c/b, Gabriella Latham-Callcott 31; Julia Caldwell 30c/b.
Wednesday, February 24
Men’s stableford (black tees): Alan Emblin 38c/b, Paul Afflick 38c/b, Greg Taylor 38; women’s stableford: Karen O’Brien 37c/b, Carole Blonk 37, Chrissy Hordern 35.
Thursday, February 25
Men’s black tee stableford: John Mulquiney 37, Tony Carabetta 32, Ian Torney 32.
Saturday, 27 February
Men’s stableford: Gil Hoskins 41c/b, Simon Cotton 41, Jeffrey Pearce 39; women’s stableford: Lindley Stafford 42, Sandra Probert 39, Niki Matthews 38.
COOROY
Tuesday, February 23
Women’s stroke (9 holes): Maria Taurer 38, Sandy Viney 39c/b, Susie Thompson 39.
Wednesday, February 24
Vets stableford: A grade – Peter Crosby 39, Michael Loe 37c/b, Dave Lyons 37; B grade – Bruce Wilshire 39, Scott Bennett 38, Terry Wilson 37; C grade – Ian Mulhall 34, Mike Smith 33c/b, Bob Atkin 33.
Saturday, February 27
Men’s stableford: Div 1 – G. Leatherbarrow 37c/b, C. Trist 37; Div 2 – K. Pronger 39c/b, T. Gordon 39; Div 3 – J. Ruig 35, R. Roemermann 33; women’s stableford: Kate Sawrey 39, Shay Zulpo 38, Deb Nelson 37c/b.
