FINDING an old set of clubs, the bag dusty and speckled with cobwebs, in the garage of a house he was renting in Western Australia was all it took to get Jean-Paul Ricca back into the game of golf.
Jean, as his mates know him, was a young man working on crayfish boats at the time.
He’d played golf with his dad and two brothers as a teenager back in Melbourne, but gave it away as other things assumed greater priority in his life.
“I picked up those clubs, dusted them off and started playing at courses near where I was living in Western Australia,” Jean said. “I got the bug again pretty quickly.
“It was a good time of my life – great fun,” he said. “The crayfish season lasted only seven months and it gave plenty of time to do other things. I’ve got great memories of Western Australia.”
When he returned to Melbourne in 2000, he kept up his interest in golf, becoming a member at St Andrews Beach Golf Club on the Mornington Peninsula.
That’s where Jean grew up, and first played the game. He completed a carpentry apprenticeship, put that to one side while he tasted the good life in Western Australia during his 20s, and took up the tools again as a builder when he relocated to Noosa in 2014.
Jean plays at Noosa, which he joined when he moved to the Sunshine Coast, and at Noosa Springs, where is a gold corporate member.
It was at Noosa Springs last weekend that he showed his newfound affinity for the course, shooting 84 around the tricky layout and winning the Monthly Medal stroke event with a net 70.
It was the second time in three months that Jean had won the sought-after event. He returned a net score of 69 to take February’s Monthly Medal.
“When I first started playing at Noosa Springs I really struggled,” he said. “I found the course very unforgiving and if you miss the fairway you’re heavily penalised.
“So I changed my game. I didn’t try to hit the ball so far and I played to keep my ball on the fairway.
“I figured that if I was within 50m of the green, I stood a pretty good chance of getting up and down. Chipping and pitching are things I practice a lot.”
The tactics have worked for Jean – particularly in those tough monthly stroke events – even though he says it took him three years to figure it out.
Jean honed his golf game on Mornington Peninsula’s great courses, including the National, Rosebud and the Mt Martha public course, where it all began for him.
And it was there he met his partner, Noosa woman Sacha Dobinson-Yates, who had moved to Victoria.
They’d regularly visit Noosa and when Sacha suggested they relocate to the Sunshine Coast, Jean took little convincing.
Sacha initially worked at Century 21 with David Conolly, who has become one of Jean’s regular playing partners at both Noosa and Noosa Springs. Later Sacha launched her own holiday accommodation business, Noosa Beach Abodes.
They’re the parents of four girls – only one of whom still lives at home.
Jean’s a keen surfer and fisherman and regularly plays golf at Noosa on Fridays and Noosa Springs on Saturdays. He says he’d love to spend more time on the golf course, but that dream will need to wait until he retires.
Day of abundance for Lavish team
THE word ‘lavish’ suggests a rich and splendid abundance. So when one of the groups competing in last week’s Noosa Springs Skins event chose Lavish as the name of their team, perhaps they were thinking in terms of wine.
For Lavish the team – comprising Terry and Jenny Smith, Richard van den Huelen and host Gary Liew – finished the day with a table full of premium wine, their reward for sustained good play in the popular event.
As many Noosa golfers already know, six dozen bottles of fine wine is the tantalising prize for this quarterly golfing challenge.
Teams of four compete in a skins-type competition. The total of their0 best three stableford scores becomes the team’s score on each hole. But nobody knows who’s won until everybody gets together in the clubhouse, and the hole by hole scores are read out.
If two or more team tie, the wine prize jackpots to the next hole.
That was good news for the Lavish team, who left the course laden with bottles of wine.
A total of 13 teams competed. The next leg of the Skins series is scheduled for Wednesday, 8th June.
Ryley shows he has the skill
ROOKIE Noosa pro Ryley Martin showed what he’s capable of when he shot a stunning five-under-par 67 – the best round of the day – on the second day of the National PGA Championship on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula last week.
It sent him roaring up the leader board of the elite event after a moderate opening round of 74, and Martin was rewarded by making the 36-hole cut.
But lack of recent tournament golf told over the final two rounds and he fell away with a pair of 75s to finish 47th, and collect prizemoney of just over $1000.
Martin, who has no official status on any tour, must rely on pre-qualifying or receiving invitations into events like the National PGA Championship, and is hoping to secure his future through Q-School qualifying tournaments later in the year.
The event was won by American Derek Ackerman, while the best of the Sunshine Coast representatives was Shae Wools-Cobb (70, 70, 72, 70), who finished 17th.
Maddy top 12 in junior event
NOOSA’S Maddison Kelly shot rounds of 84 and 88 to finish 12th in Junior Golf Queensland’s 2-Day Easter Classic at Brisbane’s Wynnum Golf Club last week.
Maddy, who plays off a GA handicap of 1.4, struggled in the heavy conditions, as did most of the competitors.
The winner of the girls’ division was Maroochy River’s outstanding 14-year-old Ionna Muir (75, 71).
Noosa’s Eli Cookman had rounds of 79 and 81 to finish 39th in the boys’ division, but when his handicap of 11 was deducted, he was placed 9th overall in the boys’ net category.
Isaak Jernsen of Yeppoon was the winner, with matching rounds of 68.
Club competitions
NOOSA
Monday, 4 April
Women’s 4BBB stableford: Tracey Skeppstrom & Mandee Trevena 46, Margaret Smith & Jeanette Dehnen 45c/b, Orawan Millar & Lynne Hancock 45, Margaret Duncan & Jan Trethewey 44c/b, Maureen Burgess & Lindy Owen 33c/b.
Tuesday, 5 April
Men’s stableford: A grade – Ryan Mulder 40, Peter Hartley 39c/b, Lee Christie 39, Bruce Blakemore 38c/b; B grade – Alec Graham 38c/b, John Henshall 38c/b, Joseph Barbaro 38c/b, Gary Tye 38; C grade – Evan Millar 39c/b, John Hughes 39, Michael Davenport 38, Clive Hart 37.
Wednesday, 6 April
Vets stableford: A grade – Ken Robinson 40, Alastair Kerrison 37c/b, Trev Sumner 37c/b; B grade – Keith Munday 40, John Wex 37, Gary Ogg 36c/b; C grade – Max Stockwell 39, Daryl Bates 36c/b, David Abey 36c/b.
Thursday, 7 April
Women’s stroke: A grade – Jennifer Eborall 71, Orawan Millar 72c/b, Connie Gordon 72; B grade – Barbara Daly 71c/b, James Rimkus 71, Kathy Jones 73c/b; C grade – Cynthia Jackson 74c/b, Christine Baker 74, Tracey Frawley 76; women’s stableford: Dianne Moncrieff 40.
Saturday, 9 April
Men’s 4BBB stroke: Michael O’Connor & Peter Cossins 60, Paul Banford & Peter Fryer 61c/b, Darren Wylie & Derek Pousette 61; women’s: Arlene Penlington & Jess Fleming 69c/b.
NOOSA SPRINGS
Monday, 4 April
Men’s stableford: Angus Thomson 39c/b, Paul Liddy 39; Scott McMenamin 38; women’s: Jen Carr 40, Helen Ringrose 39c/b, Jill Wilson 39.
Tuesday, 5 April
Men’s stableford: Robert Ironmonger 36, Craig Willian 31c/b, Michael Hitchcock 31.
Wednesday, 6 April
Men’s stableford: Roy Young 39, Arthur Johnstone 37c/b, Rod Sykes 37; women’s: Rosemary Perkins 37c/b, Gabriella Latham-Callcott 37, Lorna Gibson 35.
Thursday, 7 April
Men’s stableford, black tee: Anthony McMinn 38, Simon Cotton 37, Bob Hunt 30.
Saturday, 9 April
Men’s stableford: John Gavin 39, Paul Bell 38c/b, Rod Probert 38c/b; women’s: Roslyn Dehnert 43c/b, Coco Moore 43, Judy Buss 38.
Sunday, 10 April
Men’s stableford: Bruce McCleary 37c/b, Owen Sykes 37, Finn Boyle 36; women’s: Sandi Hoskins 37, Natalia Chriss 31.
COOROY
Wednesday, 6 April
Vets stableford: A grade – Laurie Staples 43, Grathan Leatherbarrow 37, Peter Jeucken 37; B grade – Rex Williams 40, Errol Radley 40, Kent Griffith 39; C grade – Ron Ballantyne 43, Matt Saunders 38, Dennis Beckhaus 37.
Thursday, 7 April
Women’s stroke: Div 1: Louise Taylor 70; Div 2 – Sue Piggott 69
