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Keperra Country Golf Club Associate Jordan Rooke will take top seed into the matchplay section of the 2023 Coca-Cola Pampling Plate after taking out the 36-hole qualifier on Monday.
A record field of 66 Associates teed it up at Caboolture Golf Club vying for one of 24 spots in the match play section, the top eight qualifiers receiving a bye in Round 1 to be played Tuesday morning.
With a superb two-round total of 5-under 137, Rooke finished five strokes clear in qualifying to establish himself as the player to beat this week.
In the first year of the Membership Pathway Program at Keperra in Brisbane, Rooke has been a consistent performer in Associate matches to date without notching a win.
That all changed on Monday, however, as he sets his focus on one of the most prestigious titles on the Associates calendar.
“I have been playing well all year but today things just clicked for me.” said Rooke.
“I stayed patient and treated today like a marathon given the 36-hole format.
“Staying calm and in the moment all day was really important and very satisfying to finally get a win.”
Rooke will face the winner of the Round 1 match between Jordan Hampson and Ben Hollis at 11.39am this morning with Josh Holbrook, Jack Wright, Lachlan Wood, Riley Taylor, Chris Park, Dylan Knox and defending champion Dylan Gardner the others to advance directly to Round 2.
There are two rounds of match play each day until the winner is decided in the 36-hole final on Thursday.
First year Coolangatta Tweed Heads Golf Club Associate Jack Wright will need to overcome a record field of entries to add the coveted Coca-Cola Pampling Plate to his growing list of tournament wins in 2023.
Bolstered by a higher than normal intake of first year Associates in the Membership Pathway Program, 66 players will contest Monday’s 36-hole stroke play qualifier at Caboolture Golf Club before the top 24 advance to the match play section starting Tuesday.
Now in its 19th year, the event is named and sponsored by PGA TOUR Champions Professional Rod Pampling and continues to grow thanks largely to the Pampling family’s support, including the significant prizemoney that they have donated for almost two decades.
“We love watching the event from a distance with the live scoring,” said Pampling.
“Knowing we have helped out these PGA Associates playing for some extra prizemoney in a format they don’t play too often is very satisfying.
“It will be great to see if Dylan Gardner can go back-to-back this year however we understand there are some quality Year 1 Associates in the system this year.”
The most prominent of those is Wright, who among his eight wins to date boasts the recent NSW/ACT Associate Championship at Tura Beach Country Club.
In Year 3 of the MPP at Pelican Waters Golf Club on the Sunshine Coast, Gardner too has a solid year, recently winning the Woodford PGA Open Match with a 36-hole total of 15-under par.
Given his success at Caboolture last year it is a timely confidence boost as he seeks to go back-to-back.
“This is my favourite event of the year,” said Gardner, pictured with Marge Pampling.
“This is my third year playing the event and no doubt this will be the toughest to win with the quality of players in the field.”
Runner-up in the Pampling Plate 2021 and the Queensland PGA Associate champion in 2022, Bailey Arnott was top-10 at the NSW/ACT Championship two weeks ago and will be another of the fancied chances.
With improvements both on and off the golf course, Caboolture Golf Club General Manager, Trent Scaysbrook, is again excited to welcome PGA Associates to the club.
“We are thrilled to again have this prestigious event at our club,” said Scaysbrook.
“We will have a number of members getting involved and of course Rod’s mother Marge adds that special touch by providing food and coffee for the players.
“We have renovated 12 of our bunkers and the course is looking in great shape.”
All players will contest the 36-hole Coca-Cola Pampling Plate qualifying that doubles as the Pro-Am supported by the Caboolture Golf Club, players vying for a share of $5,000 in prizemoney.
The top 24 players will then compete for $10,000 in a match play format over three days with the final to take place on Thursday.
This year will mark the first time that live scoring will be in operation.
Click here to stay across all the matches as they play out.
Ashley Anh Dinh is an international student studying a Diploma of Golf Management through the PGA Institute, and studies on-site at the PGA Learning Hub at Sandhurst.
Originally from Vietnam, the now 20-year-old also spent time in Canada while she was growing up. Like many others, Ashley’s golfing passion started at a young age.
Her dad was one of the top amateurs in Vietnam, and he helped Ashley make the decision to come to Australia to study.
Ashley was studying a business degree at home but wanted to align her future career more with her true passions. Tossing up between fashion and golf, her father asked her a simple question; ‘which do you prefer?’
“Obviously golf! I would always choose golf,” she said.
“Since I was young, the environment golf has given me has always been good. I get to meet a lot of new people playing golf and learn about their job and their life.”
Her father did some online research, along with talking to others in the Vietnamese golf industry and worked out the PGA Institute, based at Sandhurst, was the perfect place for Ashley to harness and build on her passion for golf.
Ashley is loving being in Melbourne and especially at Sandhurst. The kind hospitality and facilities have been a stand-out.
“We get unlimited range balls, and access to 36-holes, the North Course and the Champions Course,” said Ashley excitedly.
“All of the staff are so nice and have been helpful in planning my next journey.”
And plans for her next journey are well under way. Once she completes her Diploma in Golf Management, Ashley hopes to undertake the Membership Pathway Program to become a PGA Professional.
Being around Sandhurst has been incredible for Ashley’s golf, and the inviting community of members have also welcomed her as one of their own.
She was approached on the range by a Sandhurst member to join their regular playing group, and after learning Ashley was on the search for a new place to live, this same member invited her to move into their spare room.
Her new home overlooks the 17th green of the Champions Course, and being only walking distance from classes, it’s the perfect place for Ashley to make her golf career aspirations come true.
Ashley’s passion for the PGA Institute is evident, and as for her advice for those thinking about studying:
“Just do it! Everything happens for a reason, so just do it,” she said.
The PGA Institute provides a wide range of career outcomes from school leavers to those currently working in the industry and looking to upskill. It is the perfect place to combine your passion for golf with your career.
If you want to find out more about studying at the PGA Institute, there is an upcoming Careers in Golf Open Day at the PGA Learning Hub in Sandhurst on Saturday, September 23. RSVP Here.
Jayden Cripps’ first preference was to have a PGA Tour of Australasia card, however, when Qualifying School failed to go to plan, he circled the upcoming Four Nations Cup on the calendar.
A teams event contested between Australia, South Africa, Canada and New Zealand, the Four Nations Cup is for vocational PGA members without a Tour card and will be played at Victoria’s Moonah Links from September 19-21.
Cripps something of a contestant with a difference, and an important one at that.
Hailing from Sydney’s south, Cripps is a rare Indigenous golf professional, one who is relishing the chance to provide a visible example of an Indigenous golfer representing his country to young aspiring players.
Growing up in a sporting family that has included relatives playing NRL, and even a golf pro in great uncle Graham Lester, Cripps is aware of both his uniqueness, and welcomes added responsibility both as an example and potential agent of change.
The graduate of the PGA Membership Pathway Program via The Ridge Golf Club reminded of both while thoroughly enjoying recent involvement in an Indigenous clinic at the Tailor-Made Building Services NT PGA for a second time.
“Anytime you can be a role model for anyone let alone being Indigenous or anyone is pretty cool,” Cripps said.
“I guess doing the indigenous clinic at the NT PGA and giving back to the Indigenous community, that was pretty rewarding … To have a golf influence in the Indigenous community would be huge.”
That influence will come in part when he suits up for Australia at the Four Nations Cup this month, but is also achieved through his training as a vocational member of the PGA of Australia and through simply being present.
“Watching the Indigenous kids at Palmerston, it was amazing how much talent was there in that little group.
“I think it was Lorenzo, he absolutely killed it. He was smashing the ball, his putting was unbelievable. I gave him a signed glove, some balls and he was in awe. He didn’t take the glove off.
“To see something like that, to give back to someone like that is probably the most rewarding. And for him to go back to his family and say, ‘Look what I got’, that could promote golf in his family or community somewhere down the line.”
Promoting the game is a core element to every PGA member’s role, achieved in a wide variety of ways, including for Cripps and the rest of the Australian Four Nations Cup team through physically playing the game.
The event’s importance despite only recently coming into existence clear for Cripps when describing his aspirations to represent his country.
“Once I knew I wasn’t going to get my Tour card because I played so well at Q School (laughing), that was on my radar big time,” Cripps said. “Once I knew I was illegible to qualify for it, I wanted to make it straight away.”
That qualifying occurred via last year’s PGA Professionals Championship National Final at Yarra Yarra Golf Club where Cripps earned his first chance to represent Australia in anything alongside veteran Tour pro turned Royal Hobart Golf Club Teaching Professional Scott Laycock.
The remainder of the four-man team comprising of Cripps’ good friend TJ King, who returns to the Aussie side after playing the 2022 event won by Canada, with Melbourne-based professional Bradley McLellan, another new face.
Relishing the chance to return to a team environment like his days as young man playing Australian rules football, Cripps is also looking forward to playing under team captain Laycock, who selflessly gave up his exemption into the 2022 Fortinet Australian PGA Championship for King and Cripps to allow both to tee it up.
“When you have someone who was a great player like him and the calibre of his class, you’re going to learn a lot,” Cripps said of the one-time world No.69.
“Watching him shoot bogey-free 66 in the second round at Yarra Yarra last year was some of the most impressive golf I have ever seen.”
Competing across the difficult Open Course at Moonah Links will require more of the same from Laycock, as well as his teammates who will contest daily singles matches in the morning and two fourball matches in the afternoon.
The goal for the Aussie charge quite simple according to Cripps.
“I just want to win.”
It’s an often-repeated phrase from friends to those thinking about starting a family: If you wait until you’re ready to have kids, you’ll never have them.
Part of that truth belongs to the simple fact that nothing can prepare you fully for what comes with being a parent; part of it is the reality of how much you have to learn along the way.
Mark Lazenby, a PGA Professional for the past 21 years, questioned whether his skill set was enough to make a move into management.
Did he have the knowledge to read a balance sheet? Could he cast a critical eye over the food and beverage operation and suggest improvements? Did he have the capacity to bring a staff together and have them all working towards a common goal?
The role of a General Manager is diverse and fluid and it wasn’t until Lazenby heard Oatlands Golf Club General Manager, Sam Howe, speak at a PGA leadership seminar that he understood that no one is completely ready to take that step.
“What really stood out for me was understanding that sometimes we can be too self-critical in feeling like we need to know everything,” Lazenby says.
“One of the things Sam said was that it is absolutely OK at times to not be the smartest person in the room.
“It’s OK to sit back and listen, take on board rather than having to be the messiah who knows absolutely everything.
“During a PGA webinar with fellow PGA Professionals David Tapping and David Wren (General Manager of Melbourne Golf Park and Executive General Manager at Rosanna Golf Club respectively), the question was asked as to when they knew they were ready to take on that role.
“Dave Tapping said it was two years into the job.
“To hear people talk like that, who I respect greatly, gave me that bit of confidence to throw my hat in the ring and take that next step, which is what I did.”
The position that Lazenby applied for was as General Manager of Cardinia Beaconhills Golf Club in Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges, a position he was appointed to in July.
Lazenby undertook his PGA training at Royal Fremantle Golf Club south of Perth before seeking opportunities within the golf industry overseas.
After four years in Europe, Lazenby broadened his professional perspective by spending 11 years in Asia.
That included stints at the prestigious Singapore Island Country Club and Sentosa Golf Club, experiences that emphasised the importance of the customer experience.
“Incredibly high-end facilities that came with expectations of how you dealt with people with various needs, be they high net-worth individuals or not,” Lazenby explained.
He put that knowledge to good use when he joined Anthony Sinclair at Federal Golf Club in Canberra.
The General Manager at Federal and the 2021 NSW/ACT Management Professional of the Year, Sinclair was embarking on enhancing the member-value proposition when Lazenby joined as Golf Operations Manager in October 2018.
“It was a change of culture that we tried to instil to create a facility that was financially strong but also had that real feeling of a facility where people wanted to spend time,” Lazenby adds.
“We increased the membership, we increased the number of rounds and turned it into a facility where people really wanted to be.”
In the early stages of the next phase of his career, Lazenby is already advancing his education.
The Board at Cardinia Beaconhills recently supported his attendance at a business management conference, confident it will lead to a stronger club in future.
That week of education advancement also highlighted to Lazenby the willingness of other General Managers to share their accumulated wealth of knowledge anytime he cares to ask.
And when he is confronted by a situation he is not particularly sure how to handle, Lazenby will call upon two decades of trying to help people solve the problems with their golf swing.
“No one comes and has a lesson when they’re playing their best; they tend to only come to you when they’re at their worst,” Lazenby reasons.
“It’s having that idea of how to deal with people and make sure that everyone’s needs are respected and being looked after.”
Studies have shown that club members who have lessons with a PGA Professional are more likely to not only maintain their membership but increase their club activity.
Peter Clark won’t have members at Minnippi Golf and Range in Brisbane; his task will be to get newcomers to fall in love with golf as quickly as possible.
A PGA Professional for more than 30 years, Clark (pictured) completed his PGA training under Allan Cooper in WA but after more than 20 years in Europe returned to Brisbane in 2014 to continue his career.
In February this year he was appointed as the Operations Manager for Minnippi Golf and Range, the first new public course in Brisbane in more than 70 years and which opens to the public on Saturday followed by a family fun day on Sunday.
Devoid of a traditional club member model, Minnippi is laying out the welcome mat not only to existing golfers but those who have an interest in playing but not known their entry point.
Clark believes that turning beginners into golfers comes down to coaching… and getting them out onto the course as early as possible.
In addition to individual, junior and group coaching, Minnippi offers the opportunity to ‘Play with a Pro’ and fast-track each person’s golf education.
It was during his stint at Golf Club Westwoud in The Netherlands that Clark saw first-hand how quickly people improved with on-course lessons when the club’s driving range was shut down for good.
“Every lesson that I did was on the golf course and people learned 10 times faster than they did when they were hitting golf balls on a range,” Clark explains.
“If you go on the course, you can learn so much more in an hour than you can in four hours on the range.
“It was a bit of an eye-opener.”
Clark and his team will also conduct four-week coaching programs designed to turn beginners into confident golfers.
Each four-week program covers one of three levels that will give each person the skills and competencies they need to play a round of golf, the basis of the lessons drawn from Clark’s more than three decades in the game.
“We follow the process that I have always believed in which is there are seven shots of golf to learn. If you learn those seven shots, then you can play golf,” says Clark.
“It’s a very easy way to get started and get into the game of golf.
“Being a PGA Pro for over 35 years now, you build a program up and you see what works and the fastest way to get people up and running from scratch to a good player.”
Designed by Paul Reeves and Phil Ryan at Pacific Coast Design, the golf course itself will also play an important role in introducing new people to the game.
The floodplain on which the course was built meant that green sites needed to be raised, the designers using railway sleepers not only as support bases to the putting surfaces but also as replacement faces to traditional sand bunkers.
The configuration also allows for golfers to play three, six, nine or 18 holes, the flexibility attractive not only to those new to golf but people who struggle to squeeze golf into their busy lives.
“We’ve already had a tremendous amount of people just booking three holes, which has surprised us because it is such a new concept,” says Clark.
“We threw it out there and people seem to be keen to take up that option.
“People are really time poor now so if you finish work at 5 o’clock you can park your car and go and play three holes.
“The course has been designed with a very open mind about the future.”
But if you think expansive tee boxes, generous fairways, large greens and a complete lack of sand bunkers makes this course a pushover, Clark is adamant that good players will enjoy Minnippi just as much as the newbies.
“Just over 6,000 metres, so it’s a pretty tough golf course from the back tees,” Clark adds.
“The ball doesn’t run very far and we have a Slope rating of 130, which is quite high, so a pretty challenging course.
“You’ve got to hit some great tee shots and if you hit your tee shots well you’re hitting into raised greens so anything left or right of the green is going to hit the side of the greens and kick away.
“If anyone can break par around here they’ve done a great job.”
For more information on Minnippi Golf and Range visit minnippipublicgolfcourse.com.au.
Two late birdies have given Jack Wright a two-stroke buffer heading into the final round of the $35,000 NSW/ACT PGA Associate Championship at Tura Beach Country Club on the New South Wales Sapphire Coast.
Leading by one at the start of day three, Wright struggled on the par 5s early in his round but bounced back late to double his advantage by day’s end.
A first year Associate at Coolangatta-Tweed Heads Golf Club, Wright bogeyed the par 5 second, sixth and 11th holes but, for the second consecutive day, birdied both the par-5 16th and par-5 18th for a round of 1-under 72.
His three-round total of 6-under par puts Wright two strokes clear of Concord Golf Club’s Joe Kim (71) who in turn has a one-stroke advantage from Daniel Nesbitt (73), William Bayliss (72) and Baxter Droop, whose 3-under 70 was the best of Round 3.
Based at the Yarrawonga Mulwala Golf Resort on the Murray River, Droop’s round featured four birdies along with an eagle at the par-5 fourth.
Round 4 gets underway from 7.30am from the 1st and 10th tees with the lead group of Jack Wright, Joe Kim and Baxter Droop teeing off at 8.42am.
Strong winds from with south-west are predicted for Friday’s final round which will provide a stern test to close out the 2023 NSW/ACT PGA Associate Championship.
First year associate Jack Wright delivered one of the rounds of the day to push one stroke clear at the NSW/ACT PGA Associate Championship at Tura Beach Country Club on the NSW Sapphire Coast.
Based at Coolangatta-Tweed Heads Golf Club, Wright has won five Open matches already this year and earlier this month finished top-25 at the Tailor-Made Building Services NT PGA Championship.
He has brought that form to Tura Beach, bouncing back from an opening round of even par 73 that included a triple bogey to post 5-under 68 on Wednesday to be 5-under and leading by one.
First round leader Liam Reaper (73) is tied for second at 4-under with fellow Victorian Zac Wood, who matched Wright’s round of 5-under 68 to roar into contention.
Eleven players are within three strokes of the lead through 36 holes as 52 players made the cut to advance to the final two rounds.
Round of the day on Wednesday belonged to Wyong Golf Club’s Dylan Grogan, who went bogey-free in his 6-under 67, but shot of the day came from fellow Wyong Associate Joseph Liddle.
Playing the par-3 fifth hole, Liddle hit 6-iron, bounced once beyond the hole before spinning back for a hole-in-one, the first of his golfing life.
Round 3 gets underway from 7.30am from the first and 10th tees on Thursday with the lead group of Jack Wright, Liam Reaper and Zac Wood teeing off at 8.42am.
Three of this year’s State Associate Championship winners will go head-to-head at the NSW/ACT PGA Associate Championship starting Tuesday at Tura Beach Country Club on the New South Wales Sapphire Coast.
A total of 103 PGA Associates will tee it up from Tuesday vying for a slice of the $35,000 in prizemoney on offer.
Three players in particular will start the tournament full of confidence given their tournament success already this season.
Rosanna Golf Club’s Joel Mitchell comes in on the back of a dominant eight-stroke win at the WA PGA Associates Championship last week, one of three victories he has recorded in Membership Pathway Program events this year.
Prior to travelling to WA the Victorian won the Royal Melbourne Associate Invitational and he shared victory with Linus Yip at the Blacklocks Prestige Thurgoona PGA Associate Pro-Am in February.
Mitchell was also second at the Victorian PGA Associate Championship at Tocumwal Golf Club but was a distant seven shots from winner, Tim Walker.
A third year Associate at Peninsula Kingswood Country Golf Club, Walker was also victorious at The National PGA Associate Pro-Am in May and was 10th in this event 12 months ago.
With 73 of the 103 players in the field calling New South Wales home, William Bayliss shapes as the best hope among the locals.
Winner of the Tasmanian PGA Associate Championship at Barnbougle Dunes four weeks ago, Bayliss took that form to the adidas PGA Pro-Am Series where he finished tied for the win with Matt Stieger at the Gunnedah Pro-Am on April 11.
In his first year of the Membership Pathway Program at Pymble Golf Club on Sydney’s North Shore, Bayliss also boasts two runner-up finishes in Open Matches at Stonecutters Ridge and Pymble golf clubs this year.
Designed by five-time Open champion Peter Thomson, Tura Beach Country Club has the distinction of being Australia’s first golf course residential development and butts right up against Tura Beach.
The field will be cut to 50 plus ties following Wednesday’s second round with the winner to be crowned Friday afternoon.
Victorian Joel Mitchell has set his sights on more state success after cruising to an eight-stroke victory at the ADH Club Car WA PGA Associate Championship at Chequers Golf Club.
Runner-up at the Victorian PGA Associate Championship at Tocumwal in April, Mitchell took what appeared to be an unassailable six-stroke advantage into the fourth and final round on Tuesday.
That margin ballooned to eight when Lakelands Country Club Associate Daniel Hoeve double-bogeyed the first hole of the day, Mitchell maintaining his eight-stroke lead until the very end.
A third-year Associate at Rosanna Golf Club in Melbourne, Mitchell will now turn his attention to the NSW/ACT PGA Associate Championship at Tura Beach Country Club starting next Tuesday followed by the Queensland PGA Associate Championship in October.
It’s all part of making his final year as a PGA Associate one where he maximises his playing opportunities.
“I always had eyes for playing a lot more this year, especially late last year when I was having a bit of success in the pro-ams,” said Mitchell.
“I’ll keep that going for the rest of the year and hopefully win a couple more.
“All that’s changed really is that I’m playing more days during the week rather than playing a match on Monday and then trying to get to the range.
“A lot more golf during the week has helped.”
With Hoeve’s early stumble, a closing round of 2-over 73 and 2-under total was enough for Mitchell to record a comfortable win.
One-under through 12 holes, Mitchell dropped four shots in the space of three holes but steadied with a birdie at 16 to keep the likes of Hoeve at bay.
“I tend to be a very aggressive player so taking the foot off the gas is not a style I like,” Mitchell added.
“I tend to feel a bit claustrophobic when I’m doing that so I had to still be aggressive.
“The game plan doesn’t change at all, it’s more a case of not letting the lead slip and to try and build it if possible.
“Even though today’s result in terms of the individual round wasn’t amazing and not what I was looking for, there was a little bit of a hiccup late in the round but I was able to hold it together.”
After his unfortunate start Hoeve closed with a round of 4-over 75 to snare outright second, seven shots clear of Jeffrey Ahn (79) from Hartfield Country Club.
