It’s safe to say that few players are more familiar with Noosa’s golf course than Ryan Mulder.
He’s been playing there since he was a kid of six, and his first job was as an apprentice greenkeeper at a club that was then known as Tewantin-Noosa.
He is on first name terms with almost every blade of grass on the course.
All of that knowledge came to the fore last week when Ryan, now 31, played a wonderful round of golf to take this year’s Noosa Open, one of the club’s most significant annual events.
Playing off a handicap of one, he went around in 69, for a net 68, to win both the net and gross divisions of the event.
It was the second Open win for the talented golfer whose first victory came in 2003 at the age of 13.
Ryan’s been a junior and club champion at Noosa, and is currently a member of the club’s extraordinarily successful A grade pennant team.
His golf these days is generally limited to Saturdays and Tuesdays – and then only if he can arrange his working week to accommodate a half day off to join his mates in the Tuesday Club.
Ryan began his own successful landscaping business a few years ago and, for a few years, golf took a definite back seat.
“I pretty much took three or four years off,” he said. “I feel now that I’m just starting to get back into it.”
Ryan put his victory down to good putting and chipping – and, of course, knowing just where to place his ball on a course he knows better than anyone.
Herbert on top of the world after first US win
Lucas Herbert, with his Peregian-based coach Dom Azzopardi by his side, overcame gale-force winds to score his first win on the US PGA Tour at just his third start as a member when he took the Butterfield Bermuda Championship at the weekend.
The win – his second of the year after holding on to win the Irish Open on the European Tour in July – means the world to the 25-year-old Australian, who made his home at Marcus Beach for most of last year.
He’s now a starter in next year’s US Masters, confirms his standing on the US Tour for the next two years, and he sits solidly within the top 50 in world golf rankings.
Not since Adam Scott won the Qatar Masters and Byron Nelson Invitational in 2008 has an Australian male player won individual titles on both the European Tour and PGA Tour in the same year.
“It will be so cool to play in the Masters,” Herbert said. “It will be great to play in some of these tournaments that I’ve watched on TV since I was a kid.”
High up in European Tour standings, Herbert instead campaigned for most of this year in the US, where he now lives in Orlando, Florida. He won his way onto the PGA Tour through the Korn Ferry Tour finals two months ago.
Azzopardi, who has been his coach since Herbert was 13, answered an SOS call and flew to Bermuda a fortnight ago to help iron out a fault in his swing takeaway. Obviously it worked.
Herbert is planning to now return to Europe for the Tour playoffs, and is looking forward to perhaps being a part of the Internationals team in next year’s President Cup.
So close for Peregian junior
Peregian’s Adam Van Dorsselaer played outstanding golf to shoot one-under 71 in the Ian Baker-Finch Junior Classic at Twin Waters last week – a performance he thought might just be good enough to land one of junior golf’s most valuable prizes.
In the end, though, Adam’s score was matched by the Gold Coast’s Kai Komulainen, named last month as Australia’s leading junior golfer.
Adam and Kai then twice played the 18th hole before Kai birdied the par five hole to snatch the victory in a playoff.
Not only did he not win the IBF Junior Classic, but Adam also missed out on a $1000 scholarship, courtesy of Ian Baker-Finch, to be used for coaching, accommodation and travel to a major event of his choosing.
He did, however, win the trophy for returning the best net score in the tournament.
Horderns take mixed foursomes title
Noosa Springs’ couple James and Chrissy Hordern combined brilliantly to become the district’s net mixed foursomes champions at Mt Coolum last week.
After handicaps were deducted, James and Chrissy tallied 107.5 strokes to beat Mt Coolum’s Peter Wolfenden and Diane Chard by 1.5 strokes in the 27-hole Sunshine Coast and South Burnett district championship.
The Mt Coolum pairing of Stephan Scheepers and Pam Hunt took the gross title with a 12-over-par total of 120 (79, 41).
Noosa golfer ranked one of Australia’s best 50
Noosa club champion George Giblett has been named in the top 50 in Golf Australia’s 2021 Order or Merit, confirming his status as one of the country’s best players.
Giblett, 20, came in at number 50 in a list that comprised 753 golfers who had performed well in a series of national events that counted towards the Order of Merit. Giblett took part in five of them.
Noosa Springs’ Dino Degotardi was placed 60th, largely due to his runner-up finish in the Northern Territory Amateur Championship.
Adelaide’s Jack Buchanan won the men’s OOM, while Pelican Waters’ Blaike Perkins was the highest ranked Sunshine Coast resident, coming in at number 12.
All national championships and each state’s amateur championship count towards a player’s average, in addition to various other major events approved by Golf Australia.
Ryza becomes Sunday Series finalist
Noosa Springs’ golfer Ryza Garbacz is a finalist in the resort’s Sunday Series after scoring an impressive 41 points in the competition on 10 October. That was the best score produced by any of the weekly winners during October, and qualified Ryza for the December final.
The Sunday Series, sponsored by Joe Langley Real Estate, rewards the winners of each Sunday competition, with the male and female golfers who shoots the month’s best winning score being promoted to the final, with a chance to each win a Noosa Springs holiday with unlimited golf.
Sandi Hoskins was the women’s winner for October with 39 points.
Club competitions
Noosa
Monday 25 October
Women’s stableford: Susan Griffiths 40, Paula Jeffrey 37, Diana Stagg 36c/b; women’s 9 holes: Jenny Drummond-Gower 21c/b.
Tuesday 26 October
Men’s stableford: A grade – Brian Farmer 41, Greg Strang 39, Colin Kinnaird 38c/b, Alex Officer 38c/b; B grade – Tony Haack 42, Michael Norman 40c/b, Peter Hartley 40, Peter Telley 39c/b; C grade – Michael Meltzer 41, Jim Grant 40, Bob Hobart 37c/b, Michael Donnelly 37c/b.
Wednesday 27 October
Vets’ stableford (four-man team, best two scores count): Ken Reed, Dieter Hoffmann, Graham Farrell and Harry Roberts 98, Bob Foster, John Kingston, Neil Moloney and Ron Turner 89c/b, Jim Crawford, Bernie Phillips, Jim Schofield and Dennis Wills 89.
Saturday 30 October
Men’s stableford: A grade – Alex Officer 40, Mike Quincey 38c/b, Craig Lena 38c/b; B grade – Ted Clark 39c/b, Mark Chapman 39, Grant Holloway 38; C grade – Ted Robinson 37c/b, Kevin Richter 37c/b, Paul Cruise 37; women’s: Lisa Joseph 37, Cindy Lawson 35, Kathleen Anschau 34c/b.
Noosa Springs
Monday 25 October
Men’s 4BBB stableford: A. Rooney and G. Copeland 47, G. Hoskins and P. Foulsham 46, B. Layton and G. Maddern 42; women’s stableford: Toni Liddy 41, Rosemary Perkins 38, Margaret Hart 37.
Tuesday 26 October
Men’s stableford: Phil Harrison 36c/b, John Mulquiney 36, Martin Scollon 32.
Wednesday 27 October
Men’s stableford: Graham Dill 38, Allan Carter 37, Niels Faerch 36c/b; women’s: Shard Lorenzo 42, Margaret Hart 38, Joan Cairns 37.
Thursday 28 October
Men’s stableford: Michael O’Connor 32, John Mulquiney 31, Michael Newman 30.
Saturday 30 October
Men’s stroke: Craig Willian 67, Rick Tasso 70c/b, Greg Taylor 70; women’s: Ruby Jaede 71, Lorna Gibson 72c/b, Judy Buss 72.
Sunday 31 October
Men’s Sunday Series, stableford: Alan Beesley 39, David Wrigley, Ken Healy 33c/b; women’s: Maralyn Beamish 28, Beryl Rowan 27, Di Cutting 16.
Cooroy
Wednesday 27 October
Vets stableford: A grade – Mike Kent 38c/b, Bob Noble 38, Geoff Linde 35; B grade – Rex Williams 36, Derek Wood 35, Grant Smallacombe 34; C grade – Dave Chapman 38, Tony Kershaw 36, Rick Lenske 35.
Thursday 28 October
Women’s stableford: Kate Sawrey 37, Carolyn Foster 34c/b.
Saturday 30 October
Men’s foursomes championship: Div 1 – K. Hall and G. Hall, J. Thorburn and K. Pronger; Div 2 – F. Wiggins and M. Davies, T. Cairns and W. Patston.
