The Maleny Golf Club was pleased to recently welcome a group of three young professional golfers (from left) Mitch Jacobson, Troy Cox and Ben Wedmaier,  who were keen to pit their skills against Graham Papworth’s course design and a few of the sucker pins set for them by our award-winning Superintendent Mick McCombe.

Troy, 38, comes from Newcastle while Ben, 25, and Mitch, 28, are based at Headlands on the Sunshine Coast. The trio were visiting Maleny last Thursday (11 August) after completion of the northern leg of the Sunshine Swing of the PGA Pro-Am Series in preparation to play the next two events at Mt Coolum and Maroochy River before the tour heads down to Brisbane.

Troy managed to make an impression by driving the green off the Blue markers for an Eagle putt on the 332m First hole. However, the fast and tricky two-tiered green on the 310m Par 4 Second proved a real handful even for this seasoned pro who overcooked his birdie putt and ended up off the green much to the amusement of Ben, Mitch and their host for the day Jan Johnston.

After 27 holes and a feast of birdies Troy and Jan emerged victorious over Ben and Mitch who put up a dogged fight before adjourning to the new deck for a light libation. Good luck guys from us all here at Maleny for the rest of the series and the future. We look forward to seeing you all again soon.

Above from left: Mitch, Ben, Jan and Troy on the First Green. Below Troy tees off on the 200m Par 3 Third.

“We always have a lot of fun when we get to play here at Maleny because it’s a very different type of course to what we normally get to play on,” says Troy.

“The natural landscape is great and this is a plantation-style, links-like course which is quite rare unless you get a chance to play in Hawaii. The greens are quite hard and fast and really protect the course very well.”