By Peter Owen
Gary Ward’s golf was so poor late last year that he genuinely considered giving it away.
His handicap ballooned from 12 to 20 in just three months and he was seriously out of love with a game that he’d been playing, off and on, for more than half a century.
It wasn’t that Ward didn’t have other things to keep him occupied.
An admitted late starter in parenthood, Ward has three young children despite being in his mid-60s, and has had a long and successful career as a musician.
But he persevered and, in that inexplicable, almost mystical manner that sometimes happens in golf, he gradually rediscovered his form and, with it, his love of a game that he first played when he was just 10.
His stableford scores – for so long stalled in the low 20s – became 31, then 33, even as much as 37, before the planets aligned at Noosa last Wednesday and he returned a score of 44 points – good enough for a resounding win in the day’s B grade vets competition.
The improvement may have had something to do with his purchase of a new set of Cleveland irons a few weeks ago, but Ward insists that last week’s triumph was despite the new clubs – not because of them.
“The lie of the clubs was wrong,” he said.
“I took them back to the shop and pro Shane Healey looked at me and said, ‘What are you talking about? You just had 44 points.’ But the clubs weren’t lying flat when I was addressing the ball.”
Now that they’re fixed to his liking, who’s to say to what level Ward’s game will rise?
His career as a musician, and his love of teaching, have taken him all over Australia. The bass guitarist has played at folk festivals in Victoria, NSW and Queensland and been part of groups such as Nizami and Whipbird, where he performed with harpist Hayley Erin.
He rediscovered golf a few years ago while living in Warburton, 70km north-east of Melbourne.
“Our house backed onto the 14th green of the Warburton golf course,” he said.
Gary and his then 13-year-old son Django – named after Belgian jazz legend Django Reinhardt – would play golf as often as Gary’s teaching and Django’s studying would allow.
“Django was the only junior in the entire club and they made a real fuss of him,” Gary said.
When they relocated to the Sunshine Coast they both joined Noosa, and in 2017 Django led his Noosa team to victory in the junior pennant final.
Gary’s taught at Gympie High School, St Thomas More and is currently a part-time teacher at Noosa’s Pengari Steiner School, where his two daughters, aged 14 and 11, attend.
His schedule allows him to play with the Noosa vets on Wednesdays and in the Saturday club competition. He’s now looking to improve enough to return to A grade.
He says he now has a perfect balance to his life – a couple of days of golf each week, a teaching role he enjoys, and the opportunity to compose and play music whenever he can.
Another top 10 for Porter
Peregian’s Cassie Porter recorded her 19th straight round of par or better – and her sixth top 10 of the year – when she shot rounds of 66, 68 and 69 to finish tied third in the TPS Hunter Valley event at Cypress Hills on Sunday.
It is an extraordinary beginning to a professional golf career.
The event, contested by male and female pros, amateurs and juniors, was the last in the Webex Players Series, and Cassie will now take a break before the Australian Women’s Classic at Bonville next month.
With mum Di on the bag, a smiling Porter had one bogey and two birdies on the final day of a tournament shortened to 54 holes because of the heavy rain in NSW.
Hay enjoyed the company
David Hay says it was playing with three female golfers – one of whom was his wife – that inspired him to an outstanding 40 stableford points and win Wednesday’s club competition at Noosa Springs.
“It was a welcome relief from the banter I’m used to from my usual playing partners,” he said.
Describing his round as ‘one of those days when everything goes right’, Hay, a 17-handicapper, says his game has benefited from his decision in November to retire.
A Noosa Springs member for 15 years, Hay had run a successful joinery business.
He plays two or three times a week – not much more than before he retired – but he now finds time for other interests that may indirectly benefit his golf game.
“I’m a regular at the gym and I’m getting involved with yoga,” he said.
Strong showing by Noosa veteran
Noosa’s Simon Tooman shot rounds of 70 and 68 for a six-under total of 138 to finish fourth in the two-day Moama Masters at Rich River in country Victoria last week.
He finished five shots behind fellow Sunshine Coast star Glenn Joyner, who led throughout to beat a very strong field. Joyner had won earlier in the week at Melbourne’s Settlers Run.
Brad Burns (69, 70) was tied seventh, while Noosa’s Mark Tickle (81, 82) finished out of the money.
Sign up now for Skins
Registration is now open for the first of this year’s Noosa Springs Skins Series on Wednesday, April 6 – an opportunity for golfers to play serious golf in a very social setting.
Once known as the Noosa Springs Wednesday Wine Down, it’s a skins-type team event with a prize of four bottles of wine for the best stableford score by a team on each hole. If two or more teams get the same score on a hole, the prize jackpots to the next hole.
And if anybody holes out at the fourth they’ll win a corporate membership valued at $2250.
The cost is $95 ($49 for members; $85 for social and reciprocal members) and that includes lunch and post-game nibbles. Tee-off is at noon.
Download an entry form from the Noosa Springs website, or give them a call on 5440 3325.
Club competitions
NOOSA
Monday 7 March
Women’s stableford: A grade – Rosemary Caffyn 34, Noreen Scanlon 31c/b; B grade – Mary Stockwell 33, Donna Coey 32; women’s 9-hole stableford: Elisabeth Thomson 18, Jenny McDougall 15c/b.
Tuesday 8 March
Men’s stableford: David Conolly 41, Peter Fryer 40, Leigh Hancock 39, Neville Hazlett 37; B grade – Jason Toohey 41, John Henshall 39, Peter Shortal 38, Ray Costelman 37c/b; C grade – Wayne Buglar 41, Marc Murray 38, Neil Bickley 37c/b, Mervyn Neilsen 37.
Wednesday 9 March
Vets stableford: A grade – Ray Egge 41c/b, Ted Clark 41, Mike Quincey 39c/b; B grade – Gary Ward 44, Andy McGill 38c/b, John Brodie 38c/b; C grade – Tony Faull 38, John Sharp 36, Neil Beasley 35.
Thursday 10 March
Men’s stableford: Kenny indsay 33, Glenn Bolton 32, Michael Cowell 29.
Saturday 12 March
Men’s stableford: A grade – Nick Cole 42, Peter Fryer 37c/b, Ben Meredith 37c/b; B grade – Matthew Leahy 39c/b, Michael Norman 39, James Pittendrigh 38c/b; C grade – Brett Gavin 37, Joe Franz 36c/b, Dave Potter 36; women’s: Judy Patterson 30c/b, Allana Moore 30, Peta Mancktelow 29.
NOOSA SPRINGS
Monday 7 March
Men’s 4BBB stableford: D. Oates & R. Fisher 46c/b, S. McMenamin & G. Taylor 46, J. Krimmer & S. McMenamin 45; women’s: S. McGavin & C. Moloney 45, D. Foulsham & E. Balmforth 43, R. Perkins & A. Harburg 42.
Tuesday 8 March
Men’s stableford: Gus Torney 37, Jesse Davies 36, Ryley Martin 34c/b; women’s: Sally Locke 39, Berenice Holmes 29c/b, Leonie Graham 29.
Wednesday 9 March
Men’s stableford: David Hay 40, Simon Cotton 37c/b, Noel Telfer 37; women’s: Dee Pugh 38, Sarah Bate 36c/b, Lee-Ann Hay 36c/b.
Saturday 12 March
Men’s stableford: Chris Collinge 39, Jack Williams 36c/b, Craig Davis 36; women’s: Rosie Randall 34c/b, Tracey Carter 34, Rosemary Perkins 32c/b.
Sunday 13 March
Men’s stableford: Ray Brown 36, Mike Foskett 35c/b, Phil Harrison 35c/b; women’s: Diana Goss 35, Berenice Holmes 25.
