Sunshine Coast’s 10 best golfers revealed
The Coast is blessed with some of the best golfers. Peter Owen lists the region’s top 10.
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How would you rank the Coast’s top 10 golfers?
Our region is blessed with some of the best golf courses in the country, played by some of the best golfers – male and female.
Trying to evaluate the best of them is always going to be a little subjective.
But former champion Stewart Appleby once told me he considered the difference between a scratch golfer and a tournament player to be about the same as the gap between a scratch golfer and an 18-handicapper.
So, in trying to assess the Sunshine Coast’s top 10 golfers, I’ve taken his advice and given extra merit to those who play the game for a living. And my criteria is that the golfer must be a Sunshine Coast resident.
Right or wrong, here’s my assessment of the region’s very best golfers.
1. SHAE WOOLS-COBB
A highly-regarded international amateur, Shae turned professional in late 2018. His career as a professional golfer has been hindered by COVID-19, which has played havoc with most playing schedules over the past two years.
But he’s continued to show glimpses of form that indicate he would not be out of place on any of the world’s elite tours.
A Maroochy River member who has been coached by Grant Field since he was 13, Shae’s best professional performance came in late 2019 when 15th in the Australian Open, after challenging for the lead until the final few holes.
He was fifth in last year’s Queensland Open at Pelican Waters and tied for third in a TPS event in Sydney.
Whenever he can, Mudjimba-based Shae, playing off a handicap of about plus seven, puts his name down for competitions at Maroochy River, where his playing partners usually include a number of youngsters going through the club’s junior development program.
2. T. J. KING
Former outstanding Mt Coolum junior Tyron-Jaye ‘T. J.’ King has always wanted to be a professional golfer. He began a traineeship with Mt Coolum pro Steve Jenkins when he finished school, and joined the pro tour as soon as he felt his game was ready.
Long-hitting T. J. won his first pro-am in 2019 when he shot eight-under 57 in the City of Brisbane Pro-Am at Victoria Park, and last year travelled to Mackay to win the PGA Professionals Championship of North Queensland.
That victory got him into the PGA pro championship final at Hope Island where, last week, he finished second, shooting rounds of 67 and 70 and securing a spot in this week’s Australian PGA at Royal Queensland.
3. BRAD BURNS
One of the dominant forces on Australia’s Legends Tour, Brad Burns has been playing golf for a living for almost 50 years.
He is a three-time winner of the PGA Australian Professionals Championship, led the Legends Tour Order of Merit for four of the last five years, and has lost count of the number of pro-ams he’s won around Australia.
A Woombye resident, Brad has qualified three times to play the Senior PGA Championship on the US Champions Tour, only for the event to be cancelled because of COVID one year, and for a qualification mixup to thwart him in another.
This year, though, he did make it to the big event, only to shoot rounds of 80 and 79 and miss the cut.
Now 65, Brad’s lived on the Sunshine Coast for 30 years and reckons he’s playing as well now as any time during his career.
4. GLENN JOYNER
After winning more than 140 times across the world during a professional career spanning nearly 35 years, Glenn Joyner is ready to concede his best years are probably behind him.
But that doesn’t mean the much-travelled veteran can’t match it with the very best on his day, or that he’s not looking for new challenges.
He became a professional golfer in 1987, and hasn’t stopped travelling since.
After playing for 20 years he became a coach at Melbourne’s Yarra Yarra, then joined the Australian Legends Tour, where he’s now one of the dominant players. Last year he won seven times on the Tour.
Glenn is a Headland member playing off a handicap of plus four and, when his hectic schedule allows, he fills in as one of the club’s rangers. He’s been a Sunshine Coast resident for more than five years.
5. SARAH WILSON
The third ranked female amateur in Australia, Pelican Waters-based Sarah is preparing for a future career as a professional golfer.
She’s just become a Future Tour Affiliation member, which gives her opportunities to play in many professional tournaments and earn unofficial ranking points that will potentially earn her a place on the pro tour next year.
She earned an invitation to compete in this week’s women’s Australian PGA at Royal Queensland.
Originally from Cairns, Sarah moved to the Sunshine Coast at the age of 14. A year later she travelled to the US where she won the Under 16 section of the Aaron Baddeley International Junior Championship in San Diego.
Two years ago she pre-qualified to compete in the Queensland Open at Pelican Waters, missing the 36-hole cut by a single stroke.
Since then she’s confirmed her standing as one of Australia’s leading amateurs, and won the South Australian Amateur Championship last year. She was third in the Tasmanian Amateur Championship and fifth in the Australian title.
6. Alex McCOY
A trainee professional at Caloundra, Alex McCoy – or A. J. as he’s known to everybody at the club – showed he was an outstanding player when he shot 62 to win the season-ending Queensland Order of Merit Championship at Wynnum in late November.
The event was the culmination of a year-long series of tournaments contested by the best trainees in the state.
He then travelled to country Victoria where he shot rounds of 66, 69, 76 and 65 to be runner-up in the PGA National Championship – virtually, the Australian championship for trainee pros. A. J. collected $6325 for his efforts and there’s no doubt there’s much more to come.
7. CASSIE PORTER
People have known for years that Cassie Porter was a star in the making. As a junior she won almost everything in Queensland, sealing her promise with a win in the World Junior Championship in Japan.
The future promised anything. Then the Peregian member hurt her back and was forced from the golf course for 18 months.
She returned late last year and quickly found her best form. She won the Keperra Bowl, finished top 10 in the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific Championship and was third in the Sunshine State Amateur in Florida.
Cassie, 19, then turned professional and makes her pro debut in this week’s women’s Australian PGA at Royal Queensland. Nobody will be surprised if she’s on the LPGA Tour in the US within a year or two.
8. BLAIKE PERKINS
The highest-ranked Sunshine Coast amateur on the national Order of Merit at No 10, Blaike Perkins is one of a group of talented Pelican Waters golfers that make the club almost impossible to beat in any pennant competition.
Originally from Calliope, Blaike, 20, consistently contends in all the country’s top international events.
He showed his class last year when he won the Northern Territory Classic, shooting a remarkable 10-under 62 in the process. He was also runner-up in the Keperra Bowl and the Gary Player Classic and was fifth in the Tasmanian Amateur Championship.
9. BAILEY ARNOTT
He made headlines when he played nine holes with Adam Scott during the first wave of COVID in 2020, a match that was streamed live around the world. But it’s as a trainee at his dad Tom’s pro shop at Caloundra that Bailey Arnott is showing signs of emulating his hero.
During his first year, Bailey quickly discovered he was as good as any trainee in the state, winning three of Monday trainee tournaments and teaming with his mate and fellow Caloundra trainee Alex McCoy to take out the PGA Associates Foursomes Championship in July.
While he still has two years of his traineeship to go, Bailey’s already preparing for a career as a touring professional golfer.
10. GEORGE GIBLETT
Twice a winner of the Invincibles Sunshine Coast Junior Masters, George has taken his great golfing form into the senior ranks, scoring a runaway win in this year’s Noosa club championship and contending consistently in major national amateur events.
He’s led Noosa to pennant honours the past two years and in the recent Legends Pro-Am at Maroochy River, George game a glimpse of his potential when, playing as an amateur, he shot rounds of 73 and seven-under-par 65 – a 36-hole performance equalled by only Andre Stolz, the winner of the event.
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