CASHING IN
Coast builds on PGA momentum with Oz’s richest Pro-Am
GOLD Coast will become home to the richest pro-am golf event in Australia in 2019.
Australian golf great and Gold Coast resident Wayne Grady has announced a twoday event scheduled for April 4 and 5 at Lakelands Golf Club that will carry a stunning $150,000 in prizemoney.
On the same day the Wynnum Pro-Am started what will be its eighth year as the richest one-day tournament on the PGA Pro-Am Series, with $50,000 up for grabs, their southern counterparts went one better by revealing plans to go even bigger.
The Gold Coast Celebrity Pro-Am will be held over 36 holes and is expected to draw the top golfers based in Australia and a raft of personalities from sporting and media backgrounds.
Grady, the 1990 US PGA Championship winner, hosted a similar tournament earlier this year at Royal Pines with the likes of Kerri-Anne Kennerley, Wally Lewis, Jeff Thomson, Ben Ikin, Natalie Cook among a field of about 375 players.
Gold Coast has just finished hosting the Australian PGA Championship, one of Australia’s two biggest tournaments along with the Australian Open, and will now boast another premier event. It raised $35,000 for the Carer’s Foundation and Grady has ambitions of raising more than $200,000 for Ashton’s Place, a charity helping to supply resources needed for children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.
“We are trying to build it into the largest charity golf fundraiser on the Gold Coast,” Grady said.
“We want to build a training and respite centre to ease the financial burden on families with autistic children because the average person can’t afford it. I was in America for 25 years and every event there was run for charity.”
“My ultimate goal is to build it into a four-round tournament over different golf courses. They do it at Pebble Beach and Palm Springs (in the US) but no four-round tournament has ever been run for charity here.”
Viryan Collins-Rubie is the Gold Coast mother of Ashton, 4, who was diagnosed with autism two years ago.
It inspired the family to begin working on building awareness of the disorder that affects one in 70 people in the country and costs the nation between four and seven billion dollars per year.
“Our hope is that through this event and many more we will be able to put a light on a very frightening disorder that is becoming more prevalent in society,” Collins-Rubie said.
“At the time of diagnosis, our son couldn’t tell you if he was hungry, thirsty, tired or sad. He couldn’t tell you if he was cold or hot or even if he was happy. His needs were met because of the intuition of those that cared for him.
“Ashton couldn’t look at us, recognise us or his twin sister. No one can tell us what caused it or the best form of treatment.
“Early intervention is the key. But that means 20-35 hours a week of intensive therapy for a boy who was two.
“That takes money, resources and a network of friends to come together ran give our little boy to bring out little boy out of his silence.
“Most families don’t have access to those things. They are working hard to support their families and get through a normal day.”
■ VETERANS John Senden and Matt Millar yesterday shared in a rare seven-way tie at the $50,000 Bartons/BMD Wynnum Pro-Am.
Former Australian Open champion Senden birdied the final hole to reach his sixunder-par 64, which was as low as anyone could go.