FAMILY GOLF ACT ON SAME COURSE
Brother, sister on the rise
GOLF: When Quinn Croker and Kamryn Dunemann hit the golf course together there is no shortage of family rivalry, but in two weeks’ time they’ll be doing it for Queensland when they take on some of Australia’s best junior talent.
Sixteen-year-old Croker and his step-sister Dunemann (15) will form an unusual sport double act when they tee off in the School Sport Australia under-17 golf championships at Bonville and Coffs Harbour.
The pair earned Queensland selection following this month’s state secondary school championships in Kingaroy.
Both have been playing golf for six years and Croker’s latest state selection follows his feat of winning back-to-back Toowoomba Golf Club stroke-play championships.
“I’m happy with where my golf is at the moment,” said the St Joseph’s College student who plays off a two handicap.
“I’ve been playing for six years and it seems to have gone so fast. My first highlight was two years into playing golf when I represented the Queensland side in under 12s.
“Then about six months later I played in a State of Origin side for Queensland against NSW and recently I’ve had two club championship wins here at Middle Ridge.”
Croker and his TACAPS Grade-10 sister are now busy mixing school commitments with practise ahead of their nationals’ appearances.
“I’m managing at the moment to balance the workload at school while continuing to practise my golf,” Croker said.
“There’s a lot of hours spent out on the golf course practising, focusing and making sure everything is as good as it can be at that point in time.”
Dunemann has also worked her handicap down to two.
“I’ve been playing for six years as well. I started down at Gatton with a junior clinic and I really loved it,” the former under-12 state rep said.
“I progressed to three holes and Quinn went to six. He was always one step ahead of me growing up but now he’s only beating me by .1 (handicap).
“My highlights are putting the hard work in and achieving my goals.
“At Kingaroy I wanted to finish top five and make the Queensland team. I performed to the best of my ability and reached both of those goals.
“It would mean a lot to me to do well in Coffs Harbour.
“There’s actually an Australian merit team selected and that’s another of my goals I want to reach. But I think just playing the best to what I can play will be amazing to me.”