Newly renovated Palmerston Golf and Country Club set to spark NT PGA Championship
This year’s NT PGA Championship is set to be one of the biggest golf tournaments the Top End has ever held. Here’s why.
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Some of Australia’s best golfers will be among 120 competitors teeing off at the Palmerston Golf and Country Club in August to compete for a share of $200,000 in the NT PGA Championship.
Defending champion and rising golf star Austin Bautista, of NSW, will return for the four-day event from August 17 to 20.
Territory’s biggest golfing fans will get the opportunity to watch competitors from across the world at the newly renovated Palmerston course including winners from other interstate PGA tournaments.
Recent winner of the WA PGA, TPS Sydney and NSW Open David Micheluzzi is set to compete as well as the Gippsland Super 6 and The National Tournament recent champion Tom Power-Horan.
Victorian PGA Championship 2022-23 winner Andrew Martin is also set to give the swing at the Top End event.
The Palmerston Golf and Country Club will have a fresh look after undergoing extensive renovations including the addition of a mini golf course and new pro shop, car park, and café, with further works being undertaken on the clubhouse.
In the week leading up to the championship, a number of events will take place, including an intensive juniors’ clinic with the pros, a Junior Pro Am, a women’s clinic, a clinic to engage Indigenous children in the sport, and a sponsor’s golf day.
Palmerston Golf and Country Club general manager Matthew Hewer said the event was set to go to another level this year.
“The 2021 NT PGA at Palmerston served as the final stop of the 2021/2022 season. We are excited to welcome the best professionals in the region back to the Northern Territory for the seventh time,” Mr Hewer said.
“When we first hosted the NT PGA in 2016 we had a vision to build this into one of the showpiece events of the Darwin sporting calendar.
“With the works we have undertaken over the past 12 months, we believe both players and fans will be treated to the best NT PGA Championship yet conducted at Palmerston Golf and Country Club.”
Major Events minister Paul Kirby said the championship was a chance to inspire the next generation of golfers among other opportunities.
“The NT PGA Championship is a fantastic opportunity for locals and visitors to see some of Australia’s best golfers right here in the Top End. It draws competitors and their teams to the Territory from across the world,” Mr Kirby said.
“They stay in local accommodation, visit local restaurants and experience some of our tourism offerings, which boosts our economy. The championship is also an opportunity to foster the next generation of local talent with a range of clinics on offer.”
Palmerston mayor Athina Pascoe-Bell said the council was “proud” to be involved in bringing the tournament back to Palmerston for the seventh time.
“Territorians have always had a passion for outdoor sports, so it’s a valuable opportunity to showcase our city, provide economic benefits for local businesses and a unique experience for locals and visitors,” Ms Pascoe-Bell said.
“We look forward to welcoming all involved in the 2023 Northern Territory PGA Championship to Palmerston.”
NT Golf program sees 300+ Territory schoolkids give club a swing in remote communities
The Territory could have some future professional golf stars in the making following an inspiring NT Golf program which brought the sport to remote schools.
More than 300 students gave the ball a whack as Golf Australia’s relationships manager for the NT Brodie Morcom ran 17 clinics over six days in partnership with Hockey NT.
The 2000km journey saw five schools — Pine Creek School, Mataranka School, Elliott School, Tennant Creek Primary School, and Tennant Creek High School — take part in the My Golf initiative.
Morcom said the skills of the students — including a standout 11-year-old boy from Tennant Creek — impressed, as many of the participants had only been introduced to golf for the first time.
“The kids trying golf had some great reactions but the looks of wonder were more on my face,” Morcom said.
“Seeing such natural talent for ball sports, of all kinds, is such a rare thing. You’re showing some kids once and they just get it.
“That Grade Five boy at Tennant Creek Primary School literally saw me hit it once, copied and hit his ball nearly perfectly.
“After one shot, he said ‘I like golf. I want to play it’.”
The youngster had curiously picked up a cut-down seven iron and clipped the ball 70m off a synthetic turf mat at the school oval.
The joy of the participants led one school to request an equipment pack to continue the sport while other schools said they were eager to include golf as a fourth term activity.
Making the sport more accessible was the fact the schools were using soft rubber balls and rolled out synthetic turf mats which allowed activities to be held on basketball courts and in gyms in some instances.
“We wanted to go to schools that sometimes get missed in remote communities,” Morcom said.
“Golf and hockey are two sports that nearly all of the kids had never experienced and we wanted to provide a different opportunity to footy or basketball.
“You don’t understand how an hour with kids can be life-changing.
“I really felt the value when a schoolteacher told me that one Grade Three girl who didn’t get involved with sports took to golf and hockey.
“She had a go and that’s what the My Golf schools program is all about.”
Morcom and Hockey NT growth and inclusion co-ordinator Dominic Sloane knew the kids had relished the opportunity when they noticed the kids had remembered Morcom from several years ago when he last visited to introduce touch football.
“Kids speaking in their local language would give a hug and express ‘Thank you’,” he said.
“You realise that a positive experience stays with them because some of the kids in Tennant Creek remembered I’d been to their school three years before with touch football.”
Morcom’s roadshow to the remote communities also saw him meet with the local Tennant Creek Golf Club, which welcomed the idea of getting kids involved in an introductory junior golf program.
Another roadshow is already being planned, potentially in August to Nhulunbuy, the birthplace of top pro Anthony Quayle, who was the Queensland PGA champion in January, 2022.
Alice Springs and Katherine are also on the horizon.
Successful amateur Skye Lampton, who played at the Australian Amateurs in Sydney earlier this year, is originally from Katherine.
“Of all the kids I met, there was only one golfer a very few knew of … Tiger Woods,” Morcom said.
“It would be great to have Skye involved as a role model.”
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