Media Release 20 October 2017 Maleny to Host Inaugural Legends PGA Pro-Am with $12K Purse
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Media Release 20 October 2017 Maleny to host inaugural Legends PGA Pro-Am with $12k purse Maleny Golf Club (MGC) is pleased to announce the inaugural Live Life Communities – Maleny Grove PGA Legends Pro-Am will be held at its picturesque Sunshine Coast Hinterland course on 16 December 2017 with a prize purse of $12,000 on offer. Former Major Championship winners Wayne Grady (US PGA), Ian Baker-Finch (The Open) along with Australian golfing legends such as Rodger Davis, Peter Fowler, Michael Harwood, Michael Clayton and Peter Senior, all feature regularly on the tour. About 40 tour regulars have already entered to play, including current Order of Merit Leader Tim Elliott, Mike Harwood and Ossie Moore. http://www.pga.org.au/tourns/legends- tour/event/entries?season=2017&tour=snr&id=Q016 MGC President Dr Max Whitten said the Club was pleased and excited to team up with Live Life Communities - Maleny Grove as naming rights sponsor to bring the Ladbrokes PGA Legends Tour to the Sunshine Coast Hinterland this year for the first time. “Encouragingly we are attracting a strong professional field and with the support of Live Life Communities – Maleny Grove, aim to establish this tournament as a premier annual fixture on the region’s golfing and event calendar,” he said. “I’d like to also thank our other key sponsors including Maleny IGA, Hotel Maleny, Schweppes, Drummond Golf, Spicers, Pacific Land Rover and Pacific Ford, Brouhaha and Maleny Food Co because without their collective support this event simply would not happen.” Live Life Communities – Maleny Grove Manager Greg Guilford welcomed the opportunity to partner with Maleny Golf Club and showcase community-focused retirement living at its best in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland. “This tournament is a perfect fit for us in terms of both location and demographic and we look forward to working with Maleny Golf Club and the PGA to develop the stature and popularity of this event into the future,” Mr Guilford said. More than 50 professionals are expected to play in the morning and afternoon fields and accompany about 50 amateurs, with shotgun starts scheduled for 7:30am and 12:30pm. The event will showcase Maleny Golf Club’s challenging new links-style, 9-hole layout designed by renowned golf course architect Graham Papworth, with an additional three of the second 9 holes in Stage 2 expected to be in play early in 2018. There is no admission cost for spectators and the course offers some excellent elevated vantage points from which to sit and follow the progress of the players from hole to hole. 1 Sponsorship opportunities are still available so if there are any businesses that would like to be part of this great day please contact the Golf Club on 5499 9960 or email Liz Mellish on [email protected]. Editor’s additional background Maleny Golf Club’s first nine holes were officially opened for play on June 30 2015. This first stage of a planned 18- hole layout designed by Graham Papworth was built largely by volunteers from the club’s 400-strong membership. In November 2015 club president Dr Max Whitten was named as the 2015 Queensland Sports Volunteer of the Year. The award was presented in recognition of his leadership, commitment, drive and enterprise in facilitating construction of the course to meet an unmet demand for golf in the area. In March 2016 the club’s Course Superintendent Mick McCombe was presented with the Queensland Golf Industry’s 2015 Living Turf Superintendent’s Achievement Award in recognition of his passion, dedication and hard work in overseeing construction and presentation of Maleny’s high quality course on a modest budget with a volunteer work force. In June 2016 Mick McCombe won the Australian Golf Course Superintendent’s Association’s award for Excellence in Golf Course Management – the industry’s highest national award. In November 2016 Mick was presented with the Australian Golf Digest 2016 Superintendent of the Year Award. During the 1930s Maleny had a golf course on a parcel of land in Bunya Street where the State High School is now sited. Weekly competition results were published in The Courier-Mail and some familiar local names are well represented in sample reports retrieved from archives. Play was suspended during WWII. An attempt was made to reopen this course in 1952 but efforts to do so folded in 1954. The Club House was then donated to the CWA and relocated in the main street of town opposite the Maleny Community Centre. Until recently the building housed QML’s pathology services business. Graham Papworth of GNP Golf Design has been designing golf courses for more than 30 years including Noosa Springs Golf Course and the Kabi Road Organic Golf Course at Boreen Point locally, Lynwood Country Club in NSW and Geelong Golf Club Victoria. For more information about Maleny Golf Club, the course and membership options visit the website: www.malenygolfclub.com.au Media enquiries: Golf Services Manager, Richard Owen Phone 07 5499 9960 0412 869 937 Email: [email protected] 2 .