Thu Mar 7 2013Toowoomba Golf Club Wins Award from Qld PGA
Each year the Queensland PGA conducts the Sunshine Tour, a gruelling professional golf tour with 44 scheduled events for members of the PGA, offering a total prize purse in excess of $1,500,000.
The schedule stretches the total length and breadth of our state with individual events offering total prize purses of between $10,000 and $100,000. After each event the tour professionals are surveyed by the PGA and asked a series of questions on how each tournament was conducted.
At the end of the season all the votes are collated and sorted and announced at the annual awards held each year prior to the new season commencing.
On Tuesday this week, the PGA once again awarded their members with a variety of achievements. In addition to the professionals receiving awards for their achievements, awards were also presented to golf clubs that provided outstanding services to the PGA and their members.
One such award was the QLD PGA Regional Tournament of the Year awarded to Toowoomba Golf Club for hosting the Toowoomba BMW & Westpac Middle Ridge Pro Am Classic in September last year. The event offered $27,500 in prize money and boasted joint winners - a past member of the Toowoomba Golf Club - Ben Bloomfield and fellow professional Marcus Cain who both shot 68.
In fact the award for Qld Regional Tournament of the Year also recognised the Pat O’Driscoll Real Estate &Tropical Auto Group Capricorn Classic for their $100,000 tournament.
The fact that Toowoomba Golf Club was identified as presenting a Pro Am tournament worthy of this high accolade is a testament to the quality of the management and staff of the club and to the ongoing support of the sponsors – Toowoomba BMW and Westpac Toowoomba. The event also attracted 21 other state and local sponsors.
When asked about the win, General Manager Steve Owen said “I am absolutely overwhelmed with this recognition and the praise given to how we conducted our tournament. Last year we made a decision to increase the prize pool to qualify as a divisional tournament which offered the winners a 12 month exemption on the full PGA Australian Tour for the winner. This attracted a stellar field of quality players including 1990 US PGA Champion Wayne Grady. Our sponsors Toowoomba BMW and Westpac Toowoomba have been very involved in the presentation of the event and frankly without their support the event could not have been the success that it was.”
The event is now fixed into the PGA Tour calendar to be conducted on the last Friday in September each year which coincides with the Carnival of Flowers festival and provides a perfect opportunity to showcase the region at its best.
In fact, the sport of golf is enjoying wonderful success in Toowoomba with the Queensland PGA Championship being conducted at City Golf Club and now the Toowoomba Golf Club – Middle Ridge being awarded 2012 Regional Tournament of the Year. This city is certainly lucky to have two clubs within 5 kilometres of each other offering championship courses and fabulous clubhouse facilities for their members and guests. City Golf Club was recognised by the PGA as Club of the Year.
Toowoomba Golf Club PGA Head Professional Paul Habgood was also nominated for PGA Club Professional of the Year however narrowly missed winning the award.
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