By Peter Owen
WITH Sunshine Coast golf courses filled to overflowing, and golfers having to wait up to 10 years to join a local club, Maroochydore professional Marcus McPherson couldn’t have picked a better time to open his new indoor golf centre.
Golf is booming on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, and the demand for tee times is only going to become more acute with projections of huge population increases over the next couple of decades.
Already many golf clubs in the region have long membership waiting lists, with Maroochy River general manager Nigel Gibson warning of 10-year waits, and Caloundra Golf Club not even accepting any more names, so long is its list.
Buderim’s Headland Golf Club has 240 potential members waiting to join, more than 1000 competition rounds are played each week at Caloundra, and the members’ competition timesheet at Maroochy River is filled each week within seconds of opening.
Against this backdrop, well-appointed indoor golf centres – offering memberships with 24/7 access, state-of-the-art Trackman simulators and expert golf tuition – are springing up everywhere from Noosa to Caloundra.
The latest is McPherson’s new centre at Caloundra where, within a week of opening, he’d signed up 60 new members and was fielding a steady stream of inquiries from people looking for somewhere to play golf.
PGA member Marcus McPherson has opened a new indoor golf centre in Caloundra to help meet the golfing demand on the Sunshine Coast.
McPherson is a born-and-bred Sunshine Coaster who learned his golf at the old Horton Park course in Maroochydore, became a multiple club champion, did his traineeship under head pro Sean Seymore, then headed off to Vietnam where he spent five years as a teaching professional.
He returned in 2015 – just in time to rejoin Seymore at the new Maroochy River Golf Club, which had risen out of the ashes of Horton Park, and where he spent the next nine years coaching club members and developing the talents of a host of promising juniors.
“I’d been thinking about doing something like this for a couple of years,” said McPherson, who was considering a similar indoor centre in Vietnam before he returned to Australia. “There’s nothing like it here in Caloundra and this is a rapidly growing area.”
The attractions of McPherson’s centre, officially known as Queensland Golf Performance Centre Caloundra, are obvious.
Members can access the centre at any time – day or night, rain or shine – play virtual golf at some of the world’s best courses, buy equipment and clothing at a well-stocked golf shop, sign up for expert coaching, and get their clubs fitted or repaired while they wait.
The centre has three Trackman bays, or studios, as well as a larger bay where lessons are delivered and sessions are conducted to ensure golfers’ new sets of clubs are custom-fitted. Upstairs is a putting green and outside are ample parking spaces.
Memberships start at $49.95 a week and McPherson says his centre appeals to golfers who are time poor, keen to improve their game, or just can’t get onto a traditional course.
He remains close to Seymore and looks forward to regularly making the 10km trek to Maroochy River to continue coaching and teaching when commitments allow. In turn, Seymore’s teaching pros – John and Mackenzie Wright, and Di Pavich – will be welcome to operate out of the new indoor centre.
Further north, Noosa Golf Club’s teaching professional Jimmy Douris has just opened a new centre at Eumundi. His Eumundi Golf Farm comprises a driving range, a pitch and putt course and a Trackman golf studio, as well as lessons from one of the region’s most respected coaches.
Two new indoor centres are already operating at Maroochydore – a Clubhouse Golf Centre in Ocean St, which boasts the region’s only indoor driving range; and an X Golf complex, which features multiple simulators, food and drinks, and is available to members around the clock.
At nearby Warana, the Sunshine Coast Golf Centre has been operating for several years, providing Trackman bays and expert coaching delivered by teaching pro Atomu Watanabe who, like McPherson, did his time at Horton Park.
Golf, indeed, is experiencing unprecedented popularity on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast – on the golf course, of course, but also under a roof.
As Andrew Leventis, Golf Australia’s Clubs and Facilities Manager (North), says: “Half of all adult Australians have indicated an interest in playing some form of the game in the next 12 months. The innovation in the game is attracting a whole new demographic.”
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