Maffra Golf Club hosted its second pro-am on Monday, January 16, attracting more than 100 amateurs and 50 professional golfers from across the country to compete in the 18-hole 2023 Maffra Community Sports Club Pro-Am.
Kyle Michel, Shepperton Victoria; Ben Ferguson, Mount Lawley Western Australia; and Simon Hawkes, Hobart, Tasmania, shared victory at the Maffra pro-am, finishing the course a five-under 67.
Played in two sections, it was an early start for the first twenty-five pro golfers, joined by roughly 50 amateurs; the blare of a siren rang across the Maffra Golf Club course at 7.30am as competitors teed off from one of the 18 various holes. The second section followed with a shotgun start at 12.30pm.
The 2023 Maffra Community Sports Club Pro-Am is the second pro-am to be hosted at the Maffra Golf Club, with the inaugural event on January 25, 2022.
Maffra Golf Club president, Neville Gutteridge, said the Professional Golf Association of Australia confronted the Maffra Golf Club in 2021, floating the opportunity of playing host to an annual pro-am competition.
“It was in November 2021 when the PGA asked if the Maffra Golf Club would like to host a pro-am,” Gutterdige said.
Hosting a pro-am is no small task; it has been all hands on deck at the Maffra Golf Club over the past few weeks.
“We had a committee of six; the ladies from the club did all the catering, there were probably about 10 or 15 of them, and there was a working bee to clean up the course on Sunday; there were about 20 people involved in that,” Gutteridge said.
“Then, of course, the day after, we had another working bee, getting rid of the marquee and all the things like that. The bar staff and ground staff also put in extra time.”
Gutteridge added that after learning from the 2022 Maffra pro-am, it was significantly easier to manage this year’s event.
“We had a wash-up meeting after the first one; we did some things differently this year because there were things that we recognised didn’t work or things that we could have done differently to make the event better,” Gutteridge said.
“We will have another meeting wash-up meeting this year to iron out any difficulties and hopefully have an even better pro-am next year.
“Maffra Golf Club wants to improve each year to provide the best event possible.”
This year, Maffra Community Sports Club Pro-Am competitors had the opportunity to earn themselves beer for an entire year if they snagged a hole-in-one on the 12th hole, Maffra Golf Club’s signature hole, thanks to Leishman Larger.
Marc Leishman, an Australian professional golfer from Warrnambool in Victoria’s south-west, founded Leishman Larger in 2016.
Leishman partnered with Back Bay Brewery to serve Leishman Larger at a gala for the Begin Again Foundation, a not-for-profit he and his wife Audrey started after she recovered from a life-threatening bout with toxic shock syndrome, sepsis and acute respiratory syndrome.
Initially planned as a one-month limited release, Leishman Larger has become a year-round staple at the brewery in Virginia Beach, where Audrey grew up, and the couple now lives with their three young children.
Whilst no one scored themselves a year’s worth of beer, Gutteridge was elated with the feedback from golfers, both professional and amateur alike.
“The pros don’t compete with the amateurs; they play a game called stroke, meaning each stroke counts,” Gutteridge said.
“They could hit it 10 times before getting it in; they don’t, but that could happen. The amateurs play Stableford.”
Unlike stroke play, the objective of the Stableford system is to score more points. For example, if a hole was a par 5, and they get it in on five strokes, a par, that is worth two points. If they get it in on one stroke under par, a birdie, that’s three points. If they get the ball in on one stroke over par, a bogey, that’s one point. A double bogey, two strokes over par, is worth zero points, whilst the highest possible points is a condor, four strokes under par, an amazing six points.
“Whilst they don’t compete with each other, playing with pros is an inspiration for the amateurs; a lot of pros are ready to offer advice and lend help to the amateurs they play with,” Gutteridge said.
“We also got a lot of positive feedback about our course from the pros.
“The pro-am boosts club revenue, and for that, we have to put out a huge thank you to our sponsors,” he said.
“The importance of having the pro-am as far as showcasing the golf course is vitally important, so it is great that we got a lot of positive feedback from the pros.
“Word of mouth is the best advertisement. To have professionals talk about your golf course, making people want to come and play and especially with the pro-am having people come from far and wide, like one of the winners being from WA, it’s excellent.”
After a fantastic 2023 Maffra Pro-Am, Gutteridge is already looking forward to 2024.
“Having a pro-am in the middle of January, you can get really hot days. We have a sun policy in Maffra to look after the health of all our players, but the weather on Monday was absolutely perfect,” he said.
“We are looking forward to next year making it even bigger and better than ever.”
