Dozens of golf pros and some of the region’s best amateurs descended on Bargara this week to compete in the Bargara Golf Club Legends Pro-Am.
Held over two days on 11-12 July, the competition saw 71 professional players paired with sponsors and amateurs to compete for $25,000 in prize money as part of the Australian Legends tour.
Among the pros competing this year was Nigel Lane, who completed his traineeship with Bargara Golf Club in the early 1990s.
Nigel went on to play at a professional level, and coached golf around the world.
“I did two years here with Norm Holtz, he was the professional at the time,” Nigel said.
“He taught me a lot about the game, that my short game needed to be up to scratch or up to par like all the best players in the world.”
Nigel said the Australian Legends tour was a high-quality tour in which to compete.
“This is a great tour to play, so many awesome golfers that we play against,” Nigel said.
“We've got Andre Stolz, I think who won today, I mean he's won on the US tour.
“There's Marcus Cain who played today, I think he won the 99 or 98 Australian PGA.
“There’s Tim Eliott who I played with yesterday, he won two times in three weeks in like 1998 as well.
“There's a lot of really good players here.
“I think I finished third today so I'm a little disappointed with the way I finished, but it’s not all bad.”
Joining the pros were local players Neil Curd from Bargara and Scott Warren from Gin Gin.
Both enjoyed the opportunity to test their talents against the pros, as well as picking up any tips they could.
“I come to try and see how good I could go against the pros,” Scott said.
“It was good yesterday, not so good today.
“[The pros show you] where to attack and where not to attack, that sort of thing, but then you got to try and emulate what they do.”
The event this year was organised by Bargara Golf Club Ladies Captain Michelle Marsden, after the retirement of long-term pro Phil Curd.
Michelle said the club was pleased to welcome new sponsors to this year’s event.
“We had Neta Home and Commercial, Rum City Foods became a major sponsor, Chic’s Pies and Kalki Moon,” she said.
“A lot of our other sponsors stayed on board, so it was good.”
