Andre Gets Chance To Cash In On Tour-card Hard Yards
Central Coast Herald
Tuesday December 9, 2003
WAMBERAL golfer Andre Stolz's dream of playing in a US Masters is still alive after he recently gained a player's card to compete on the $350million US tour next year.
Stolz still leads the PGA Tour of Australia's Order of Merit after the MasterCard Masters on Sunday. He has won $395,270.
England's Paul Casey is next best on $348,678 and Victoria's Robert Allenby is third on $325,496.
Stolz is the quiet achiever of Australian golf and is an attacking style of player who, on his best days, can reel off the birdies.
The 33-year-old showed he could be a force on the main tour after winning the secondary La Salle Bank Open near Chicago earlier this year with a 17-under-par score, after making 24 birdies and two eagles on a course he had not seen before.
Stolz earned the right to play against the world's best with wins in Japan and in the La Salle Bank Open, which capped off his previous winning form in Australia.
He has bought a home in Florida and has his year planned.
Plans for the $2million environmentally friendly upgrade of the Terrigal Memorial Country Club's $2million golf course improvements are still with Gosford City Council.
The country club president, Patricia Whittle, said yesterday that the officials were hopeful that the approval would soon be forthcoming.
It is planned for the natural waterway through the course to be planted with reeds and bush to protect the banks and filter water entering the lagoon. The waterway will take on the best features of a constructed wetland, and the reeds will be positioned to filter stormwater pollutants before they enter the nearby Terrigal Lagoon.
It is anticipated that the new course will have a par-five hole, to be accommodated by the reduction in length of a par four to a par three.
Original plans also allowed for four dams to retain water from heavy downpours and allow the course to become self-irrigating.
Former major winner Wayne Grady's firm redesigned the course.
The Terrigal Memorial Country Club is trading strongly and last financial year it registered a trading profit of more than $313,000.
Gosford's Grant Binns and Toukley's Erin McMaugh won yesterday's Central Coast schoolboy and schoolgirl golf championships.
McMaugh had a scratch round of 93 and Binns a two-over-par 74.
Binns is the brother of this year's NSW junior team member, Steve.
Toukley's Mitch Irwin was second with 76 and third place went to Toukley's Dimmy Papadatos, who lost on a countback after also scoring 76.
Papadatos is one of the emerging stars of Central Coast golf. He is only 12 and plays off seven.
It was Irwin's best round at the Toukley course.
© 2003 Central Coast Herald