Grady’s a major achiever
THE GOLD COAST IS A MECCA FOR GOLFERS OF ALL ABILITIES. THE BULLETIN TODAY STARTS COUNTING DOWN THE FIVE GREATEST PLAYERS TO CALL THE GOLD COAST HOME.
TO become a major winner is to etch your name into Australian golfing history. Wayne Grady did it.
It is this feat that has put Grady into the top five golfers that have called Gold Coast their home.
Grady, who was born in Brisbane but has spent more than two decades living on the Gold Coast, is best remembered for his win in the US PGA in 1990.
He also won two Australian PGA Championship titles in 1988 and 1991.
Grady beat former world No.1 Greg Norman in a playoff to win his first before finishing three shots clear of defending champion Brett Ogle to win his second Kirkwood Cup.
It came a year after finishing runner-up to Ogle in the 1990 event.
Friend and fellow contender for Gold Coast’s top five golfers, Ossie Moore, played in the same era as Grady and said it was his search for perfection that made him one of the best.
“Wayne’s determination is COAST’S GOLDEN GREATS
WAYNE GRADY
the thing that got him there more than anything else,” Moore said.
“He was not a long ball striker but he was a perfectionist in terms of hitting it straight.
“He just had a good allround game and put a lot of practice in.
“He obviously succeeded with one of his goals in winning a major.
“He always wanted to play in America and spent nearly 15 years there. Anyone that played for more than five or six years on the US Tour has got some serious golf game.”
Grady’s reputation for accuracy rather than distance meant he was as stunned as any to win a longest drive competition while playing with Moore and others at Goondiwindi in outback Queensland.
“Out of the team he was by far the shortest hitter but he won the longest drive of the day because he was the only one that got it on the fairway,” Moore said.
“Everyone else was 60 yards past him but weren’t on the fairway.
“There were some big celebrations that night. It might have been the one and only long drive win of his life.”
Moore was part of a golden generation of Australian golfers and came through the junior ranks with Grady and fellow stars Peter Senior and Ian Baker-Finch.
Moore said they didn’t realise how good they were until they stepped out of Queensland.
“We played they all our junior golf and schoolboy Moore said.
“When you playing against each other you don’t realise what level you are at until you go interstate or overseas. We just thought that’s what everyone at our age played like.”
Grady came close to claiming a second major in 1989 when he was runner-up to Mark Calcavecchia in the British Open after losing on the first of a four-hole playoff. golf together,”