Paul Davis, a Noosa-based engineer with a modest history of golf achievement, defied his doctor’s advice not to play and scored a remarkable win in the Noosa Springs Open on Sunday 8 September.
He had recently returned from a skiing trip to New Zealand where he’d seriously injured his right shoulder, limiting his ability to swing a golf club and causing him considerable pain.
Despite the injury, playing off a handicap of 36 Davis played one of the best rounds of his life to return 42 stableford points and win the men’s division of the Noosa Springs Open by three strokes.
With the win came an all-expenses-paid trip to Dubai in March for the 36-hole final of the GEC Open – the world’s biggest corporate golf tournament.
Remarkably, Davis’s wife Deb went within a shot of claiming the women’s division of the Open, which offered the same stunning prize.
She notched up 39 points to finish runner-up to Sydney visitor Sandy Chapple, who plans her family’s annual caravan trip to Noosaville to coincide with the Noosa Springs Open.
Paul and Deb Davis moved to Noosa about four years ago, though Davis’s work as a structural engineer specialising in high rise buildings often takes him back to Sydney.
He joined the Noosa Golf Club in Tewantin, while Deb opted to become a member of Noosa Springs.
“I don’t get much time to play golf, though I’m working towards spending more time at home and on the golf course,” he said.
“I’ve had some lessons with Peter Heiniger and Hamish Robertson, who’s been working on my chipping and putting,” he said. “I think I owe this win to them.
“I just played really well. I had to take a shorter backswing because of my injured shoulder but I think it actually helped my game. It still hurt, though.”
Davis said he and his wife were looking forward to travelling to Dubai in early March for the GEC Open, which will see national qualifying winners from all over the world competing at one of the world’s most renowned golfing destinations.
Sandy Chapple, a 22-handicapper at Sydney’s Beverley Park, and her husband have been competing in the Noosa Springs Open for the past few years. She’d previously finished second and third in the event.
“We always come up and stay in our caravan at Munna Point at this time of the year,” she said.
“I love playing at Noosa Springs – it’s such a lovely course.”
Sandy, too, is already planning her trip to Dubai, which she says will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play in an international tournament.
Noosa Springs golf manager Warren Ellis said this year’s Noosa Springs Open had been the resort’s most successful, with 37 golf clubs in Australia and New Zealand represented in the near-capacity field.
