By Peter Owen
YOU can just picture it, can’t you?
Paul ‘Fatty’ Vautin and Michael O’Connor, two lovable Aussie larrikins, were spending a northern winter playing rugby league for St Helens and, to fill in time, had just finished 18 holes of golf at Royal Birkdale where, two years later, their countryman Ian Baker-Finch would claim the 120th British Open title.
As golfers, Fatty and Mick weren’t quite in IBF’s class; nor did they attract the same sort of veneration. After a few post-game drinks, the lads found themselves in Birkdale’s plush snooker room, where they put down their tankards and reached for a cue.
“Members only after 4pm,” droned a pompous member as he entered the sanctuary. “You two will have to leave.”
The mists of time have clouded the specifics of the response, but whatever it was, and by whom it was said, it was enough for Fatty and Mick – two of the most decorated players to have represented Australia on a rugby league field in the past half-century – to be shown the door and invited to never return.
That story, recalled with a quiet chuckle, was one of the reasons Michael O’Connor fell in love with golf, a game that tests a person’s skill, integrity and commitment, and unearths characters that become part of golfing folklore.
Michael’ O’Connor’s ability as a footballer – a dual international in league and union and a NSW State of Origin legend whose kicking skills still send shudders through Maroons fans – is well known. Not so widely recognised is his talent at golf.
Mick, who has been a Noosa resident for the past 25 years, first took up the game on that fateful journey to northern England in late 1988 and early 1989.
He and Vautin were Manly team-mates and had signed up with St Helens for the season, partly for something to do, partly for the money – but mostly because it just sounded like so much fun.
“We trained on Tuesday and Thursdays and played on Saturdays,” Mick said. “That was it – we had nothing else to do.”
So they turned to golf.
“Fatty had played a bit and was quite good, but I’d had only an occasional hit,” he said. “The first time I was invited to play in a corporate golf day over there I had a fresh air swing on the first tee.”
But he persevered, and with his natural athletic ability and refined hand-eye coordination, he was soon hitting balls down the centre of northern England fairways.
He borrowed a set of clubs from team coach Alex Murphy, and Fatty and he became regulars at the Ashton-in-Makerfield public links and, when they could get on, at the more exclusive Grange Park country club.
“Grange Park is the Noosa Springs of St Helens,” Mick said. “It is a lovely course but some of those English members and officials could be real sticklers for protocol.
“Fatty used to wear his socks on the outside of his long pants to keep out the cold, and he was reminded several times that such a thing was not allowed at Grange Park.”
When Mick settled at Noosa after his league career was over, he joined Noosa Golf Club, or Tewantin-Noosa, as it was then known.
“The first handicap I ever had was 13. Now, all these years later, I’m still on about that – so I guess I’m a slow learner,” he said. “But I do think I’m a much better golfer now.”
Mick showed that was certainly the case last Thursday when he scored 37 stableford points – five more than anybody else – in a Noosa Springs club competition played from the tough black tees. He followed that up with 36 points in Noosa’s Saturday stableford competition.
He usually plays in Noosa’s Tuesday Club event with a group of mates, and joins another group of buddies at Noosa Springs on Thursdays. He’s a member of both clubs, and usually fits in a third round each week if he can.
“I love golf,” he said. “It gets me out of the house, it’s always a challenge because you always want to improve, and I love the social aspect.
“You can play against anybody – it doesn’t matter how good or bad they are. The handicapping system makes you equal,” he said. “And, really, you’re playing against yourself every time.
“After playing sport in a team environment all my career, it’s really enjoyable to get out there and be entirely responsible for what you do.”
Mick and his wife moved house a couple of years ago, and for the past few months they’ve shared their home with their daughter, son-in-law and new grand-daughter Raina, now six months old.
“She’s just wonderful, and it’s given us so much pleasure having her around and watching her grow,” Mick said. “Better even than golf.”
Jaxon in the mix
NOOSA Golf Club’s Jaxon Smith shot rounds of 80 and 76 to finish fourth in the boys’ 11-12 age group of the Australian Junior Age Division Championships at Royal Pines on the Gold Coast last week.
Juniors from throughout Australia and the Pacific competed in the event, which was a qualifier for some of the United States premier youth tournaments.
Peregian’s Ellianna MacRae, with rounds of 82 and 83, was third in the girls’ 11-12 age group.
Murray at his Sunday best
NOOSA Springs member Murray Hopping gave himself a good chance of becoming the monthly winner of the Sunday Series when he returned a competitive 36 stableford points to win Sunday’s round of the popular event.
Murray’s score is the best of the month so far, the first round called off because of rain. If nobody beats his mark of 36 points in the next two weekends, Murray will qualify for the end-of-year final and be in the running for a Noosa Springs’ holiday and unlimited golf.
Visitors are welcome to compete each Sunday in the event, sponsored by Universal Property. And, if they live on the Sunshine Coast or in Gympie, they need pay only $79 green fee, which includes the cost of a motorised cart.
The Australian PGA Championship, played for many years at the old Hyatt Coolum, will return to its traditional summer timeslot this year after falling victim to COVID-19 last year.
The 2021 Australian PGA will be played at Royal Queensland from December 2 to 5 – the first time it has been held at that historic course since 2001, when the winner was Robert Allenby.
Other previous winners include Adam Scott (2013, 2019), Cameron Smith (2017, 2018), Greg Norman (1984, 1985) and Ian Baker-Finch (1993).
Club competitions
NOOSA
Wednesday, 7 April
Vets stableford: A grade – Graeme Caffyn 35c/b, Pete Blair 35c/b; B grade – David Young 36, Murray Joseph 35; C grade – Denis Grigg 30, Michael Tsolakkis 29c/b.
Thursday, 8 April
Women’s stableford: A grade – Allana Moore 34c/b, Cindy Lawson 34; B grade – Pauline Sunderland 33, Melanie Venning 32.
Saturday, 10 April
Men’s stableford: A grade – Treg Kleidon 39, Dean Smallman 38c/b, Rodney Vaughan 38c/b; B grade – Graeme Caffyn 39c/b, Michael Morgan 39, David Hinder 36c/b; John Brodie 35c/b, Brenden Motley 35, Ted Burgess 34c/b
NOOSA SPRINGS
Wednesday, 7 April
Men’s stableford: Andrew Tregaskis 38, Graham Owen 37, Glen Richards 36c/b; women’s stableford: Tereza Holley 33c/b, Sandi Hoskins 33, Jen Carr 32.
Thursday, 8 April
Men’s stableford, black tee: Michael O’Connor 37, Alan Holley 32c/b, Steven Troon 32.
Saturday, 10 April
Men’s stroke: Chris Collinge 71, Vince Green 72c/b, Bob Bean 72; women’s stroke: Tracey Carter 73, Carol Moloney 75, Jean Brady 76.
Sunday, 11 April
Men’s Universal Property Sunday Series, stableford: Murray Hopping 36, Bruce McCleary 35, Phil Harrison 34; women’s: Kaye Bollen 36, Sandi Hoskins 31, Wendy Hopping 28.
