VIC OPEN HEATS UP
Boost for economy to top $5m
VIC Open golf organisers are confident of pushing past last year’s record $5 million economic boost for the region, with international broadcasting of the tournament set to rake in tourism for Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula.
Golf Australia general manager golf operations Simon Brookhouse said 600 people, including pro golfers, golf managers and golfers’ families, had sought accommodation in the region for the event.
Mr Brookhouse said that of those, about 300 were renting AirBnB accommodation for the duration of the Vic Open.
Mr Brookhouse said Golf Australia spent $155,000 on accommodation for staff and some professional players this year.
He said the Thirteenth Beach Barwon Heads resort was booked out in the lead-up to the tournament.
Mr Brookhouse said most of the event’s 312 professional golfers arrived in the region last week.
“A lot of them got in last Friday or Saturday and they’ll probably spend seven to eight days in town,” he said.
Mr Brookhouse said “half the field” of professional golf- ers had hired cars for the event, adding to the economic benefit.
Volunteer Faye Wheatley said 140-150 residents in Barwon Heads, Ocean Grove, Torquay and Geelong had opened their homes to professional golfers for the event.
She said Australian professional golfer Minjee Lee, who won the Vic Open in 2018 and as an amateur in 2014, had used host family housing in the past.
Ms Wheatley said about half the region’s residents allowed the golfers to stay in their homes for free, becoming somewhat of a host family.
“A fair percentage of residents open up their homes,” she said.
“A lot come back year after year and have a nice relationship with their host family.”
Although she wouldn’t re- veal names, Ms Wheatley said some big-name golfers preferred to stay in host family homes because they appreciated the community support.
But she said most wellknown golfers stayed in hotels and units provided by Golf Australia.
Tourism Geelong and the Bellarine executive director Roger Grant said the Vic Open’s international television coverage in Europe, America and Asia would place the Bellarine Peninsula on a “global stage”. “It’s exposure money can’t buy,” he said.