New look Night Golf Shootout preludes QLD PGA

BY Bruce Young | Von Nida Tour | 2007 Queensland PGA | Preview | 12 Sep 2007

For the fifth consecutive year, Emerald Lakes Golf Club on Queensland’s Gold Coast will play host to a week of professional golf, the focus of which will be The Greater Building Society’s Queensland PGA Championship, from November 1st – 4th. The now highly popular and unique Daikin Night Golf Shootout, which precedes the Championship itself will be played on Tuesday evening, October 30th.

This will be the third year that The Greater Building Society has gotten behind the Queensland PGA Championship as they expand their business into the South East Queensland market. For Air Conditioning leader, Daikin, their involvement in the highly popular Night Golf Shootout has been from the first staging of that particular event in 2003.

Tournament organisers have announced some interesting changes to the Daikin Night Golf Shootout. Nine holes at the Emerald Lakes Golf Club are fully floodlit and in each of the first four years in which the Daikin Night Golf Shootout has been staged, all nine of those holes have been utilised.

This year’s Shootout will again be played over 9 holes starting at 6.30pm but in a move designed to further assist spectators and provide an even greater spectacle, the event will be played over a loop of four holes within close proximity of the Emerald Lakes clubhouse.

Holes 10, 11, 17 and 18 at Emerald Lakes will be used in rotation, with one player per hole eliminated. The two players remaining after 8 holes will return to the 18th tee to determine the winner. If those players remain deadlocked at the completion of nine holes, a nearest to the flag shootout from 100 metres will be used to determine the winner.

The second innovation introduced for this year’s event will be the construction of a pontoon on the lake directly behind the current 10th tee as a temporary tee for that hole and as a dramatic opening statement to the evening’s golf.

“There is little doubt that the shootout concept has proven to be a tremendous success since it was first held in 2003, but we feel the changes made for this year will enhance the event even further,” said Nifsan’s Corporate Director, Wayne Hunt.

“The opportunity to have the event encapsulated within close proximity of the clubhouse at Emerald Lakes is designed to provide greater opportunities to watch the event within a more contained area.”

“In previous years, many have watched the first few holes then headed back to the clubhouse to watch the finish but this year most activity will be within easy reach of the clubhouse. We believe the introduction of a floating tee at the opening hole will prove to be a great focal point of the pre-event entertainment and the opening stages of the night’s golf.”

The Daikin Night Golf Shootout field will include Peter Senior, 2006 Greater Building Society Queensland PGA Champion Cameron Percy, Ossie Moore, Lucas Parsons, Kurt Barnes and brilliant 18-year-old, Amy Yang.

Yang has been mixing her schooling at Robina High School with appearances on the Ladies European Tour where she recently finished in 4th place at the Wales Open. Yang also made the cut at the US Women’s Open and is on track for a highly successful career when she commits herself full time to professional golf in 2008.

The Greater Building Society Queensland PGA Championship, the second to last Von Nida Tour event of 2007, has previously showcased some of Australia’s emerging golfing talent, many of whom have subsequently competed with success internationally. Players such as Nathan Green, Nick Flanagan, Jason Day and Scott Gardiner have played the Greater Building Society Queensland PGA Championship previously and have gone on to play with tremendous success in the US in the last two seasons.

Nathan Green, who won the Daikin Night Golf Shootout in 2004 and placed well in the Queensland PGA Championship itself that year, has been a surprise packet on the PGA Tour winning close to US$3 million in his first two seasons including when runner up to Tiger Woods at the Buick Invitational in just his second PGA Tour start. Nick Flanagan has won three events on the Nationwide Tour in 2007 and is now a member of the PGA Tour.

19-year-old Jason Day has already assured himself of a place on the PGA Tour in 2008 after an outstanding season on this year’s Nationwide Tour. Day finished runner up to Scott Gardiner at the 2005 Greater Building Society’s Queensland PGA.

“While the field for both the Daikin Night Golf Shootout and the Greater Building Society’s Queensland PGA Championship are yet to be finalised, we believe the fields finally assembled will again showcase some of this country’s established and emerging players, several of whom will go on to great things in the game,” said Queensland PGA Executive Officer, Ian Hepburn.