By Peter Owen
It’s taken most of the year to decide, but a group of five ladies from Noosa Springs are now officially the best pennant golfers in the Sunshine Coast/Burnett district.
They won the honour at Noosa this month when teams from Headland, Kingaroy and Noosa Springs met to determine the champion team for 2021.
And they won playing a form of the game that is rarely used – indeed, unknown to many golfers – three way matchplay, played under handicap conditions.
“Nobody in our team had played it before,” said Noosa Springs captain Mally Jane. “But we were lucky that three of our caddies had taken part in the playoffs in 2016 and knew what was in store.”
In three-ball matchplay, three golfers compete against one another, with each member of the group playing simultaneous matches against each of the other two golfers.
It’s specifically referred to in the official Rules of Golf, and those who know the game say the most common mistake is picking up your ball after an opponent has conceded a hole or putt, but the other hasn’t.
Noosa Springs won its way into the district final after becoming champion of the Sunshine Coast’s Division 2 earlier in the year. Headland had won Division 1 of the Sunshine Coast zone without losing a round, while Kingaroy was champion of the South Burnett area.
After an hour’s play, a thunderstorm halted proceedings for more than 30 minutes. When play resumed, Noosa Springs ran out an easy winner, scoring 8.5 wins, with Headland runner-up on five wins and Kingaroy third on 1.5 wins.
Tereza Holley, Meredith Bunn and Carol Moloney won both their matches for Noosa Springs, while Mally Jane had one win and a tie, and Jill Yeatman scored a win and a loss.
Mally said the team was brilliantly supported by caddies Barb Stott, Rowena Faerch, Di Kemp, Judy Gosper and Fran Clements.
“They had a big role in getting us over the line,” she said.
District president Judy Patterson, of Noosa, presented the team with a glass trophy, and each winning player with a commemorative wine glass.
Jim’s game gets better as he matures
Jim Lenske’s association with golf is pretty similar to many of us. A handy young player in his teens, Jim pretty much gave the game away when family life and work intruded, only to take it up again when he got older.
The thing that’s different about Jim is that in his retirement years he’s playing better than ever – even contemplating reaching single figures before long.
Jim, a former bank manager and newsagent, joined Cooroy in March after finally calling a halt to his work life.
Since then he’s won two Monthly Medals, the Vets B grade championship and, last week, he scorched around Cooroy’s 18 holes with such skill that he tallied 44 points to win the B grade competition by three points.
That’s it for B grade for Jim. He’s now on the verge of A grade and enjoying his golf like never before.
It’s his second time around as a Cooroy member. Back in the 1980s, when it was just a nine-hole track, Jim joined the club, but didn’t have the time to hone his game.
He’d just returned from Papua New Guinea, where he’d worked with the Commonwealth Bank. Later he went to Bowen, where he operated the town’s newsagency for 10 years, and more recently he’s helped out at the BWS in Gympie.
Jim grew up around Tewantin and now lives at Widgee.
Though he plays only once a week, Jim says he loves golf, and particularly likes the people he plays with in Vets competitions at Cooroy each Wednesday.
Grathan’s amazing treble at Cooroy
Grathan Leatherbarrow, the veteran maestro of Cooroy, has just added another honour to what has been a remarkable year of golfing achievements.
Not content with winning the club championship and the vets club championship in the past few months, Grathan last week beat arch-rival Lee Grainger 2&1 to claim the club’s matchplay championship as well.
It is the first time in the club’s history that anybody has won all three titles in the same year – an achievement unlikely to be repeated.
“I just can’t believe that this has happened,” Grathan, 73, said. “To win these titles at my age is something I never dreamed of.”
Cherry-Evans lends his support to record bid
Maroons skipper Daly Cherry-Evans wasn’t going to miss a chance to play at Noosa Springs last week.
Cherry-Evans, along with other sports stars, had planned to play in a charity golf day at the resort in support of his mate, golfing world record challenger Mick McLoughlin who, next month, will attempt to play 2000 holes of golf in just seven days.
McLoughlin, a Brisbane businessman and philanthropist, is raising money for Ronald McDonald House, and a fund-raiser had been scheduled for Noosa Springs on Friday.
Unfortunately it had to be cancelled but Cherry-Evans, who spent time on the Sunshine Coast early in his football career as part of the Sunshine Coast Falcons, was not going to let the chance go by.
He told organisers he was keen to play, anyway, and nobody was going to deny the Maroons State of Origin captain.
After his round, he took the opportunity to head off suggestions he might become a marquee player for the new Dolphins team when they enter the NRL competition in 2023.
While Cherry-Evans said he had fond memories of Redcliffe, he had no plans to join the club, and was looking forward to playing our the remainder of his rugby league career with Manly – and the Queensland Maroons, of course.
McLoughlin, meanwhile, will attempt the world record of 2000 holes in seven days at Wynnum from November 21 to 27.
Club competitions
NOOSA
Monday, 18 October
Women’s stableford: A grade – Linda Laws 39, Gwen Steel 38; B grade – Donna Coey 40, Jeni Archer 36c/b; women’s, 9-holes: Kathy Jones 28.
Tuesday, 19 October
Men’s stableford: Tony Giles 39c/b, George Giblett 39c/b, David Conolly 39, Bradley Juillerat 38c/b; B grade – Philip Richardson 40, David Whiticker 38c/b, Peter Bolitho 38, Marcus Edwards 37c/b; C grade – Phil Griffiths 40c/b, Danny Woodward 40, Michael Harker 39, Rod Allen 38.
Wednesday, 20 October
Vets stableford: A grade – Doug Rogers 38c/b, Bruce Blakemore 38, Trevor Payne 36c/b; B grade – Mal Thomas 39c/b, Barry MacDonald 39c/b, Neil Prideaux 39c/b; C grade – Jeffrey Townsend 42c/b, Michael Masters 42, Tony Faull 40c/b.
NOOSA SPRINGS
Monday, 18 October
Men’s stableford: John Reid 40, Bill Young 39c/b, Ian Griffiths 39; women’s: Janet Dunn 38c/b, Marlo Douglass 38, Dorothy Marlow 37c/b.
Tuesday, 19 October
Men’s stableford: John Mulquiney 40, John Taylor 36c/b, Ian Torney 36; women’s: Kerry McFarland 30, Molly Kelly 23.
Wednesday, 20 October
Men’s stableford: Simon Hennessy 43, Bob Layton 40, Ian Gow 38c/b; women’s: Tereza Holley 36, Irene Cordukes 35c/b, Elizabeth Balmforth 35.
Thursday, 21 October
Men’s stableford: Coman Reynolds 38, Michael O’Connor 36c/b, Martin Scollon 36c/b.
Saturday, 23 October
Philip Starkey 40, John Krimmer 39c/b, Peter Kemp 39; women’s: Rosie Randall 37c/b, Coco Moore 37c/b, Jill Wilson 37.
COOROY
Tuesday, 19 October
Women’s stableford, 9 holes: Mary Miller 20c/b, Juanita Langford 20.
Wednesday, 20 October
Vets stableford: A grade – Scott Bennett 39, Gary Menyweather 36, Terry Magill 34c/b; B grade – Jim Lenske 44, Bruce Otto 41, Trevor Kenneally 39; C grade – Joe Daniels 38, Bob Atkin 37, Bob Read 36.
Thursday, 21 October
Women’s 4BBB stableford: Elaine Henman & Juanita Langford 64, Deb Nelson & Kathy Butler 59.
Saturday, 23 October
Men’s stableford: Div 1 – M. Davies 41, G. Hall 37; Div 2 – J. Bahr 35c/b, C. Darby 35; Div 3 – T. Foster 39, D. Rickard 35c/b; women’s: Janelle Thorburn 31c/b, Kate Sawrey 31.
