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Nudgee Golf Club and Yarrawonga-Mulwala Golf Club will try to go wire-to-wire at the Women’s Scramble and Championship Final respectively at Sanctuary Cove Golf and Country Club on Thursday.
Leading by two shots each after the opening round, Nudgee and Yarrawonga both extended their advantage on their respective leaderboards to more than five shots in Wednesday’s second round at The Palms Golf Course at Sanctuary Cove.
The leaders of the Women’s Scramble Championship Final by two after Round 1, Nudgee (pictured) matched their round of 16.7-under 53.3 on day two to be 33.4-under par ahead of the third and final round on Thursday.
Lucindale Country Club (54) are their nearest challengers 5.4 shots back with Mosman Park Golf Club (55.2) making birdie on their final hole to snatch the third and final spot inside the cut-line by 0.2 of a shot from Rossdale Golf Club.
Highlighted by a holed bunker shot by Lara Forster for a nett albatross at the par-5 14th and a superb birdie from Wendy Edmiston at the par-3 third, Nudgee had 11-under off the stick on Wednesday to move further ahead.
Starting from the par-4 11th, the Nudgee team began with seven straight threes to start their second round.
A nett eagle at the par-5 first was followed by three further birdies before the finished with a nett eagle at the par-4 ninth and birdie at the par-5 10th.
They picked up three shots with their eagle on 14, PGA Professional Chris Duke revealing that they discussed whether taking their third shot from the bunker was the right play.
“We were debating whether or not we should play it out of the bunker or play a wedge shot in,” Duke said.
“I just said to the girls, ‘You’ve got this, you’ve played plenty of bunker shots so let’s give it a go.’
“I had to check before we played the shot on whether we could rake bunker in between shots. We were told that we couldn’t and then Lara stepped up and holed it.
“Definitely a good boost that one.”
Leaders by two after posting 22-under in Round 1, Yarrawonga went out in an adjusted score of 12-under on Wednesday morning and then played the back nine in 9-under to finish day two at 43-under par, 5.2 shots clear of Ulverstone Golf Club (52.1) from Tasmania.
Led by prolific PGA Legends Tour winner Chris Taylor, Hervey Bay Golf Club moved up 10 spots in Round 2 with a score of 49.1, pipped by Yarrawonga by 0.1 of a shot for the best of the day.
In danger of missing the 36-hole cut after a score of 54.1 in Round 1, Hervey Bay went out in 10-under in ideal conditions, coming home with four nett eagles in their final 10 holes to put themselves in championship contention.
Needing to take the final drive of Brook Combes on the par-4 18th, Hervey Bay benefited from a stroke of good luck when his tee shot bounced clear of the trees flanking the right side of the fairway.
Taylor called upon all of his tournament experience to hit the approach shot from the rough to just four feet, the birdie putt dropping for a final nett eagle at the second attempt.
“On the last two holes we had to take both of Brook’s drives,” Taylor said.
“He leaked it a little bit to the right on the wind on 18 but we were fortunate enough that it got through the trees and we got away with it.
“I said to the boys after Round 1 not to be disheartened because they don’t give out trophies until the final day.
“Every team wants to come here and win but it is such a great week.”
Two-under through four holes, Ulverstone entered the mix by tallying three nett eagles and two birdies to close out a front nine of 10-under.
Although they had pars on 10 and the par-3 16th, the team of PGA Professional Darren Spencer, Troy Purton, Lachlan Murfet, Ethan Miles and Jeremy Adams combined for a back nine of 7.9-under par to sit in second spot with one round to play.
At 36-under par, Willunga Golf Club is seven shots from the lead in fourth position followed closely by Yeppoon Golf Club (35.8 under), Cumberland Country Club (35.4 under) and Kooindah Waters Golf CLub (35.2 under).
Photo: Jason O’Brien
Nudgee Golf Club and Yarrawonga-Mulwala Golf Club will both take a two-shot advantage into day two of The Scramble Championship Final at Sanctuary Cove Golf and Country Club on the Gold Coast.
Two nett eagles to start and four closing birdies gave Nudgee the Round 1 lead of the Women’s Scramble Championship Final as Yarrawonga tallied seven net eagles in their round to lead The Scramble Championship Final.
Led by PGA Professional Chris Duke, the team of Lisa-Maree Jones, Lara Forster, Wendy Edmiston and Brooke O’Keeffe had 11-under par off the stick for a 16.7-under par 53.3 total with their cumulative 5.7 handicap.
With shots on the two opening holes which they birdied, the Nudgee team were 4-under through two holes before coolling off slightly with four straight pars.
They would have only one par, though, in their final 12 holes, finishing with a flurry of four birdies on holes they did not get shots on.
They will start the second round on Wednesday 2.8 shots ahead of defending champions Launceston Golf Club (56.1) with less than a shot separating Lucindale Country Club (58), Mosman Park Golf Club (58.2) and Rossdale Golf Club (58.8).
“Definitely a nice way to start things off,” Chris Duke said of their two early birdies.
“We had a good practice round yesterday and had a good look at the course and it’s always nice to get off to a good, strong start to start the week off.”
Round 1 of The Scramble Championship Final is in the books 📙#SCF23 pic.twitter.com/fIa9OA2giy
— PGA of Australia (@PGAofAustralia) December 5, 2023
Making full use of their combined handicap of nine, the Yarrawonga team of PGA Associate Dale Crothers, Fletcher Kelly, Jason Hanson, Lachlan Thompson and Scott Thompson made seven net eagles and eight further birdies for an adjusted total of 22-under par 48.
That gives them a 2.1-shot buffer from Tasmania’s Ulverstone Golf Club (50.1) with Kooindah Waters (50.4), Ballina (50.9), Willunga (51) and Concord (51.1) all well within reach heading into Round 2.
A two-time winner of the PGA Victorian/Tasmanian Associate Championship, Crothers was given the major credit for providing so many birdie opportunities but it was his amateur partners who delivered on the greens.
“I only had three putts for the day, one of which was from off the green so that shows how well these guys putted,” Crothers said.
“We had a good mix off the tee. Got them all done pretty early and from there our iron game was pretty good too.
“It was just a good all round team effort.”
Four teams had the rare feat of recording a nett albatross during their opening rounds.
Ulverstone and Concord both made eagles with a shot at the par-5 first, Bunbury made eagle at the par-5 14th while Willunga made eagle at the par-4 15th with a shot.
Round 2 of The Scramble Championship Final tees off at The Palms Golf Course at Sanctuary Cove from 7:15am Wednesday morning.
The Lucindale Golf Club team of Nicole Hocking, Michelle Justin, Kerry Gilkes and Sharon Menz will carry the hopes of an entire town when they contest the Championship Final of the Women’s Scramble starting Tuesday.
Six teams from across Australia have qualified for the three-round Women’s Scramble at Sanctuary Cove Golf and Country Club with reigning champions Launceston Golf Club again represented, albeit with a different team.
It is a new-look team for Lucindale, too, who finished fourth last year and who qualified for the Championship Final once previously at Twin Waters Golf Club.
Nicole is the sole survivor from the Lucindale team who took part 12 months ago, representing a club of less than 100 members in a town of less than 300 people four hours south-east from Adelaide.
They have ridden the wave of Scramble Championship Finals in the past and would love nothing more than to welcome home a champion team in 2023.
“We’re only a very small town so everyone is very excited for us,” says Nicole.
For Sharon and Michelle, Championship Final qualification is the realisation of a dream more than a decade in the making.
The pair have both played out of Lucindale for close to 30 years and have advanced to Scramble Regional Finals four times in the past.
To now be on the Gold Coast in the plush surrounds of the InterContinental Sanctuary Cove Resort is beyond what they had previously imagined.
“We were ecstatic. I was quite emotional,” Sharon says.
“It’s been a long time that Michelle and I have been playing in this and to get to the Final now is a real privilege.”
For a relative newcomer such as Kerry, The Scramble has given her the same sense of camaraderie that she enjoyed playing team sports.
“I joined about four years ago and for the last three years I’ve been playing fairly regularly,” adds Kerry.
“I came from team sports so for me it was the other way around, golf being an individual sport is quite tricky.
“I do enjoy this format; I just have to remember not to try too hard.”
After advancing to the Regional Final from their local event at their home club, the ladies from Lucindale were joined by Mount Gambier Professional, Craig Davis, for the Regional Final at Blackwood Golf Club.
Davis also played in the Mixed event that afternoon but was told prior to heading back out that he would have at least one team advancing to Sanctuary Cove.
“We actually won on a countback. We had 31 on the back nine and the other team had 35,” Nicole says.
Adds Michelle: “Craig played with us and then had to go out straight after and play in the Mixed that afternoon.
“He’d actually found out that we’d won it but he said to us that it was going to be close.
“We were left to wait and see, which was nice.
“Now we just hope it will be third time lucky!”
Rossdale Golf Club will begin the Women’s Scramble at 8.55am on Tuesday morning with the Lucindale team third off at 9.15am at The Palms golf course.
To follow live scores, visit thescramble.com.au.
Four WA farmers have traded tractors for golf carts at The Scramble Championship Final on the Gold Coast, accompanied by the most fitting PGA Professional possible.
A PGA Member for more than 30 years, Mostyn Farmer was drafted in to join the Albany Golf Club team of Steven and Michael Long, George Liddiard and Nathan Willmott when the quartet qualified for the Regional Final at Araluen Country Club.
They arrived at the final hole with no option but to take George’s tee shot at the par-3 16th.
So nervous he mistakenly walked to the forward tee before realising his mistake, George stepped in and hit his shot to eight feet. He backed that up by draining the putt for birdie that would clinch their spot to a week-long celebration of golf at the InterContinental Sanctuary Cove Resort and Sanctuary Cove Golf and Country Club.
“That was all he did all day!” Michael asserts.
The 26 teams taking part The Scramble Championship Final in both the Mixed and Womens divisions spent Monday afternoon playing a practice round at The Palms golf course, readying themselves for Round 1 on Tuesday morning.
Nathan and Michael left their harvest of wheat, canola and barley early to spend a week playing golf on the Gold Coast while Steve puts his attendance midway through the harvest down to a sympathetic boss who is a “golf tragic”.
For most teams, such as the four farmers from Western Australia, being here is the greatest victory of all.
“We were like, ‘Let’s be honest, if we fluke it, we fluke it’,” Michael says of their win by 0.1 point at Araluen.
“We all played the day before and pretty much shot 100. We thought we may as well go home,” George adds.
Making their qualification all the more remarkable is that fact that when the four do swap the farm for the fairways, they play on sand scrapes at Tambellup and Gnowangerup golf clubs four hours south-east of Perth.
Nathan was married three days before the Regional Final at Araluen, but first they needed a PGA Professional.
Which is where the fifth Farmer comes in.
“I was the Adopt-A-Pro for the second Albany team at Araluen. They picked me up on the roadside on the way past,” Mostyn jokes.
“Country guys are always pretty cool. I did a lot of teaching in the country when I was younger. Normally if they like their golf, they like a drink as well.”
As the resident Professional at the host club at Albany, Michael Draper had the option to represent the club at the Championship Final but stood aside so that Mostyn could attend for the first time.
“I’ve come quite close. Maybe 0.1 or it was eighths-of-a-point back then,” Mostyn recalls of his near-misses in previous Scrambles.
“We had the same situation one year. One guy had to hit the drive on the last but he didn’t do quite such a good a job as George and he cold-topped it off the tee and didn’t get past the ladies.
“We ended up making par on that hole at Joondalup and missed by point-nothing.
“It’s great to get to the final and come and be part of all of this.”
So do any team members feel guilty about ditching the farm at the busiest time of year for a week of golf and functions every night?
“The conscience is clear,” George insists.
Round 1 of The Scramble Championship Final tees off at 7:15am Tuesday morning at The Palms golf course at Sanctuary Cove Golf and Country Club.
For live scores, visit thescramble.com.au.
Warren Mercer was crowned PGA Club Professional of the Year, Neil Crafter was inducted into the South Australian Golf Industry Hall of Fame and Barry Linke was recognised for his Excellence in Golf Course Management in a glittering function at the Hilton Hotel in Adelaide.
Close to 250 guests from throughout South Australian golf were on hand to celebrate at the 2023 South Australian Golf Industry Awards Night where clubs and representatives from all over the state were acknowledged for the amazing work being done across all areas of the sport, from administrators to coaches, clubs and athletes.
The Grange Golf Club were the big winners on the night with not only Mercer honoured for his outstanding contribution as the club’s PGA Professional but long-time General Manager Barry Linke awarded for Excellence in Golf Club Management, Course Superintendent Rowan Daymond receiving the Excellence in Turf Management and the club itself being named South Australian Club of the Year.
The awards were presented in four categories: PGA of Australia, Golf Australia, Golf Management Australia – SA, and Turf Management SA (TMSA).
Two of the most prestigious awards presented were the induction of Neil Crafter into the South Australian Golf Industry Hall of Fame and the Service to the Industry Award presented to Lyn McGough of Kooyonga Golf Club.
Apart from his prowess in golf architecture, Crafter has been a stalwart of the game winning both junior and senior events at State and National level during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
Both his father, Brian, and uncle, Murray, were professional golfers, and his sister Jane, turned professional in 1980.
Crafter was presented with his award by fellow Hall of Fame member John Crosby, whilst in attendance he was recognised in front of David Cherry and Bob Tuohy, also current Hall of Fame members.
McGough was recognised for her tireless work in golf over the past 40 years.
McGough is a member of Kooyonga Golf Club where she still represents at the highest level today, playing in their Sanderson Cup Pennant Team, who this year won the competition.
Employed at Mount Osmond Golf Club, McGough has also won a myriad of awards over the past 30 years and has continually been a role model and mentor for women and girls in golf and volunteers hours to the game to this day.
One of the standout award winners on the night was Sophie Hamdorf from Royal Adelaide Golf Club, named the TMSA Graduate of the Year award sponsored by Nuturf. It was a fitting reward for the hours Hamdorf has dedicated to her job and her career, contributing greatly to the continued success of Royal Adelaide.
Murray Bridge Golf Club was awarded the South Australian PGA Legends Pro-Am of the Year for the event held at their club during the summer of 2023 and the Willunga Golf Club was applauded by all attendees for the fantastic effort by all involved in hosting the recent Webex Player Series event on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia.
The club spent hours on course in the months leading up to the event to prepare the greens and fairways to a level that rivalled some of the best courses in SA.
2023 South Australian Golf Industry Award Winners
PGA Awards
Golf Australia (South Australia) Awards
Golf Management Australia – SA Award:
TMSA Awards
Laidback, easy-going party vibes will be coming to golf courses and facilities around Australia thanks to a new collaboration between the PGA of Australia, Golf Australia, and Southern Comfort.
Southern Comfort will become the exclusive Brown Spirits provider of the PGA of Australia, Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia and Golf Australia, and the fourth partner to undertake a joint Australian golf partnership which enables brands a simple pathway to partner with Australian Golf’s professional and amateur organisations across a wide range of assets.
The three-year partnership will focus on celebrating and growing the social side of golf, which continues its rapid growth throughout the country.
“This partnership is focused on recruiting new adult players to the game and breaking down barriers for those who may find golf intimidating,” said Oscar Barton, Senior Brand Manager of Southern Comfort.
“It’s also an exciting opportunity to bring Southern Comfort’s ‘King of Leisure Sports’ ethos to the national stage.
“If you can play with a can in hand then Southern Comfort will be there, celebrating easy going sports and good times with mates.
“This partnership offers fans across the nation looking for an oncourse refreshment or a round after their game the opportunity to reach for a SoCo.”
As part of the programming, Southern Comfort Twilight Rounds will be coming to golf courses and facilities across the country this summer.
A perfect social mix of casual golf and refreshing drinks with friends, Southern Comfort Twilight Rounds will be accessible to players of all skill levels, offering a laidback golf experience where the focus is more on good times with friends and less on the scorecard.
From November through to March Twilight Rounds will be available at a variety of golf facilities, including golf courses, mini-golf centres, driving ranges and simulators.
Additional partnership programming will include Southern Comfort activations at Australian golf’s two major tournaments, the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship and the ISPS HANDA Australian Open.
The “Southern Comfort Party Shack” will be located on the liveliest and noisiest hole on the PGA Tour of Australasia, the PGA Championship’s Party Hole at Royal Queensland, which takes place from November 23-26.
Whilst at the Australian Open, Southern Comfort will a roaming activation at The Australian Golf Club.
PGA of Australia Commercial Director Michael McDonald said: “We are excited to have Southern Comfort become part of Australian Golf through a variety of fan-focussed collaborations.
“Twilight Rounds will be open to all and less structured than traditional golf events and will embody the fun, casual side of golf which is increasingly attractive to our newer golf-loving audience.
“The addition of the Southern Comfort Party Shack to the PGA Championship will also further enhance the experience for fans on the party hole, which has doubled in size for 2023, and will offer eight different hospitality suites, new grandstand seating and a dedicated free public precinct.”
Golf Australian General Manager of Commercial Anthony Everard expanded further on the partnership: “Part of our Strategy for Australian Golf is to invite more golfers into the game and to create great golf experiences for everyone who participates.
“More than ever before, golf fans are seeing the game as a fun way to spend quality time with good mates, and that’s where Southern Comfort comes in.
“What they want to achieve perfectly aligns with this vision and we look forward to working with their team to bring their ideas to life.”
More information:
Southern Comfort Party Shack tickets link: https://premier.ticketek.com.au/shows/Show.aspx?sh=PGACLUB23
Follow Southern Comfort on Instagram: @southerncomfortau
Ideally, the new-look Albert Park Driving Range in the heart of Melbourne would have been ready to welcome the flood of new golfers enticed to the game during the COVID-infused explosion.
As it stands, when Albert Park’s 52 new Trackman-enabled bays opened for business last week, it became a place that caters to passionate golfers, those freshly embarking on their golf journey and those looking for a social environment in which to give golf a try for the first time.
The opening of the driving range is simply phase one in what will be a staggered release of facilities designed to revolutionise the driving range offering. With so many extra facilities the business has also undergone a name change to Melbourne Golf Park to reflect the expansion of what is now available.
In the coming months there will be a rooftop bar, pizza restaurant and 36 holes of mini golf that will not only make Melbourne Golf Park a golf epicentre, but a social hub less than 10 minutes from the centre of the city.
“We’re already a very, very busy and popular driving range so we’ve done everything in our power to make sure that we don’t upset the people that were already coming to the range,” explained Melbourne Golf Park General Manager, David Tapping.
“You can come along and hit golf balls and have fun and interact as much, or as little, as you want with the technology that’s available to you.
“But we also now offer a really good social space for groups to come along, have a hit of golf, have some food and a drink socially with a great view.
“We’re going to expose that to more young people that perhaps would not realise that golf can be relaxed and fun.
“They’re going to see this digital upgrade and I’m sure they’re going to love it and interact with it.
“Thankfully, the industry has done a good job to keep these young people engaged.
“Hopefully this will inspire another boom for our facility where they now go back and say, ‘You’ve got to come and see this. This is next level.’”
At the foundation of Melbourne Golf Park’s makeover is the installation of TrackMan technology in each of the ultimately 62 bays that play out onto a range that measures 275 metres.
An increase on the 48 previously available, 42 of the bays are undercover with an interactive TrackMan screen within the bay. Twenty outdoor bays will make TrackMan data available through the TrackMan app.
It will allow users to play interactive games with friends or measure the distance and dispersion of any and every club in the bag.
A 17-year PGA Professional himself, Tapping has nine PGA Professionals on site available for lessons.
With TrackMan data at their fingertips, golfers who use the range will see exactly where they need help with their game.
“Rather than a perceived idea of what they’re good at and what they’re not good at, we can now quantify it,” Tapping added.
“We’ve got a lot more accuracy in how we analyse someone’s game than we have had in the past.
“That’s a real positive for our coaches because we can set targets and start to see how they’re improving and making sure that they are improving.”
Eyeing a full launch in spring, it is the addition of the rooftop bar that Tapping believes has the greatest opportunity to transform how Melbourne Golf Park is received.
“The rooftop bar is a game changer for us in terms of turning the venue into a place for groups to come,” said Tapping.
“A lot of the bays will have lounges where you can sit back and watch on the TV screen as your friends hit. Then you can head upstairs to the bar overlooking Albert Park Lake and toward the city skyline.
“It’s going to be a really cool place to hang out.”
For more information on Melbourne Golf Park click here.
It was an experience not to be forgotten when PGA TOUR star Greg Chalmers rolled into town to rekindle some childhood memories and impart his short-game wisdom on a group of lucky juniors on the New South Wales Central Coast.
An 11-time winner globally, including the 2016 Barracuda Championship on the PGA TOUR, Chalmers was back where it all began at Shelly Beach Golf Club (formerly Tuggerah Lakes Golf Club) and was delighted to be able to give back to the Central Coast and Shelly Beach golf community.
“This is where it started for me, so it’s great to come back and have a junior tournament in my name. The club does a great job with the juniors,” Chalmers said.
“I think that the golfing community in general and especially here on the Central Coast does a really good job.
“For me to come back and have a hit with some of these young kids is actually good for me in many ways, too,” the two-time Australian Open and Australian PGA champion added.
Chalmers played a nine-hole challenge before hosting a short-game and putting clinic alongside some of the region’s up-and-coming stars. He was full of praise for the way they conducted themselves on the course, however, he was keen to counsel them on the amount of work required to get to the ‘next level’.
“It’s nice when you’re young and good, but really, there’s a lot of water that has to go under the bridge between the ages of 12 all the way to their 18s, 19s and 20s,” Chalmers said.
“The higher you climb that pyramid, the tighter the walk, and it’s a long way to go for many of them.
“But I would tell them this; the thing that will separate them from the rest could be a number of things: work ethic, attitude or the ability to self-assess.”
Chalmers said the drive to succeed in the sport at the highest level was more demanding than ever, and he wasn’t at all begrudging of those just starting life on tour.
“I don’t envy them in a lot of ways,” said the 49-year-old.
“For the younger ones turning pro right now, it’s tough to separate yourself from the pack, and there’s a lot of pressure.
“It’s a fine line between success and failure.”
This year has been a fruitful one for the Texas-based Aussie; from eight starts on the main tour, he has made the cut in six. But with his time on the PGA TOUR drawing to a close and the lucrative Champions Tour on the horizon (Chalmers turns 50 in October), he said he was looking forward to competing against a little more well-rounded crowd.
“The goal is to stay fit and healthy enough for as long as possible,” he said.
“I’m still playing OK, I still have my good bits, but I’m nearly 50.
“I’d prefer to be playing old men’s golf. I think it suits me better,” he grinned.
One of the rounds of the day has moved Hervey Bay’s Lachlan Wood to within two strokes of the top 10 with one round to play at the G4D Open in London.
A third year PGA Associate at Hervey Bay Golf Club in Queensland, Wood’s four-over par 76 was bettered by only six players on Thursday as Ireland’s Brendan Lawlor moved to a one-stroke lead from Australian All Abilities champion Kipp Popert.
The two leading players on the World Ranking for Golfers with Disability (WR4GD) are separated by just a single stroke going into the final 18 holes over the renowned Duchess Course.
Ireland’s Lawlor, the world No.2, missed chances with his putter in a two-over-par second round of 74 yet still signed for an impressive level-par total of 144.
World No.1 Popert, 24, dropped three shots in his first four holes but, like his opening round, the Englishman recovered on the back nine to post a three-over 75 and trail by a shot on 145 for 36 holes.
After a 10-over 82 on day one Wood made a shaky start with back-to-back bogeys.
He got those back with birdies at four and six before dropping a shot at seven.
A birdie on 12 got Wood back to one-over on his round before bogeys at 13, 14 and 18 saw him end the day in outright 12th position.
Geoff Nicholas and Cameron Pollard are both inside the top 30 despite enduring difficult days on Thursday.
Nicholas had nine bogeys, two double bogeys and a triple bogey in his round of 16-over 88 to fall to a tie for 20th while Pollard had eight bogeys, two doubles and a triple in his 15-over 87 to be in a tie for 28th.
Australia’s final representative, Adam Letherbarrow, had 106 in Round 2 to be tied for 68th.
That Cameron Pollard can sit for 20 minutes and talk about the anxiety he is likely to experience in travelling to the UK to contest the G4D Open is perhaps the greatest indicator of all.
An indicator of just how far Pollard has come since he first travelled overseas for a golf tournament at 17 years of age.
That was seven years ago for the 2016 Special Olympics Macau, where getting to the first tee was its own personal triumph.
Such was the anxiety that wracked Pollard’s brain, he passed out when his regular hairdresser was unavailable in the weeks leading up to his departure. He fell face first onto the concrete, splitting both his chin and eye.
“I ended up getting a free haircut,” he now jokes.
“Being so anxious and having panic attacks, the first time I went to Hong Kong I just stopped eating about a month before,” he adds, essentially surviving on vitamin water while he was away.
“I didn’t know I wasn’t eating but I was just nervous. I passed out a few times and didn’t eat much while I was over there. I lost like 20kg in a month.
“The build up to these events is more stressful than playing it.
“I am more confident going over there now because I’m settled in a lot of these tournaments and I know a lot of the people playing.
“It’s like going to see a few of my mates that I haven’t seen in a while. You don’t worry about anything else, so that’s a big change for me.”
Pollard and Hervey Bay’s Lachlan Wood will start favourites for the 36-hole 2023 Queensland Inclusive Championship at Redcliffe Golf Club starting Thursday.
The pair will use it as the final tune-up before representing their country at the R&A’s inaugural 54-hole G4D Open at Woburn Golf Club in England May 10-12 where they will be joined by fellow Aussies Geoff Nicholas and Adam Letherbarrow.
Pollard remembers how hard it was to travel to Macau – he spent four months in hospital upon his return such was the toll that it took on his body – yet he is embracing the opportunity afforded to him by the $20,000 grant he received for winning two of the four Webex Players Series All Abilities events.
“I’m glad to represent them and see what I can do for them in return. Hopefully win and get it out there,” says Pollard, who will wear adidas apparel featuring the Webex logo.
“It’s like representing yourself. You don’t want to let yourself down so you don’t want to let anyone else down. That’s just sport and life.”
Pollard will have carer and caddie Dan Shipley as a travel companion as he embarks on the biggest trip and most significant tournament of his life.
He has considered playing in more European Disabled Golf Association events but he acknowledges that for him, it is not as simple as jumping on a plane with golf clubs in tow.
“I just don’t know how I’m going to take my meds on the way over there and on the way back,” Pollard says of the medical logistics he must face. “I’ll be taking night-time medication in the middle of the day and stuff like that.
“Being a pro, the week-in, week-out playing golf, that would be the hardest part. Doing it overseas would be even tougher, especially for myself with all my medications and stuff like that. That would be a bit of a struggle.
“After most rounds my legs get sore but I shouldn’t be complaining when I’ve got all my limbs and you’ve got people out there with no legs.”
After dominant wins in the first two Webex All Abilities events at TPS Victoria and TPS Murray River, Pollard lost in a playoff to Geoff Nicholas at TPS Sydney presented by Webex and finished second to Lachlan Wood at TPS Hunter Valley.
The emergence of Wood in the All Abilities tournaments is pushing Pollard to better his own game, starting with the R&A’s first G4D Open.
“His world ranking jumped from 50th to sixth after the New Zealand All Abilities Championship, which is a big jump,” says Pollard, who is currently ranked No.22 in the WR4GD ranking and won both the WA PGA and WA Open All Abilities tournaments.
“It is pushing me because it’s not so easy to win all the time.
“Especially going over to England, it’s not going to be easy. I’m going to have to play me best golf.
“The first ever G4D Open, it’s pretty big.”
And another big milestone in golf’s impact on Pollard and his family.
