Cooroy Veterans’ Golf Club is a group of veteran golfers (age 55 years +) operating independently within Cooroy Golf Club situated in the Noosa Hinterland on the Sunshine Coast.
It has only been running for two years, but the annual “Green Staff versus Cooroy Veterans’ Golf Club” is becoming a very popular event with its members.
The greens staff don’t actually play; their job is to set up the course in a way that proves to be a greater challenge than normal. The concept adds a bit more enjoyment to our game and is a great way for the players to have some interaction with our greens staff.
Cooroy Veterans’ Golf Club Captain, Grant Smallacombe, said “the idea came about from a member’s suggestion and I thought it warranted a try. The 2018 event was a success, so it has now become an annual event”. “The success of the game depends a lot on the effort put in by our Course Superintendent, Todd McNamee, and his Staff. We leave it entirely up to Todd to set up the various challenges and that way, the obstacles we encounter on the day are a surprise, even to me”.
Among our challenges this year: a tractor parked in the middle of the 1st fairway, hoops, empty containers and hoses on the greens and flagpoles and bins protecting the front of some greens. With no relief from these items, you had to think carefully about where you aimed to land your shots. Pin placements were in difficult and sloping areas of the slick greens and resulted in more putts than usual. The placement of the flag-stick just off the green on the 2nd hole confused many players. click pictures to enlarge.
We played this game as a 4 Man Ambrose which is very user friendly and invited Todd to our presentation where his ‘lawyers defence’ (it sounded like a good idea at the time) was that he was encouraging members to play better golf and hit the fairway and greens in the right place for the layout of the particular hole. Todd assured us that next year, it will be even more interesting!
I think we all agreed that the Greens Staff won on the day.
Cooroy Veterans’ Golf Club has 135 members who compete in an eclectic program of 81 friendly but competitive golf events throughout the year. It is also a member club of the Sunshine Coast District Veterans Golf Association and play at some of the best courses on the Sunshine Coast through our host day program – e.g. Caloundra, Gympie, Headland, Maroochy River, Mt. Coolum, Nambour, Pelican Waters, Peregian Springs, Noosa and Tin Can Bay.
At Cooroy, we are very much about fostering the game of golf and promoting social interaction among veteran golfers. Visiting veteran golfers are welcome to join us for our weekly Wednesday competition.
