Leading Professionals at NSW Open full of praise for Moore Park Golf Course

Participating professionals were generous in their praise of the Moore Park Golf Course during the recent successful running of the 2006 Proton NSW Open event held at the course 9-12 November, 2006.

All players expressed surprise and delight at the standard of the par 70, 18 hole inner city championship layout – with most payers revealing that they had no idea that such a busy popular public facility could be turned out in such a pristine and challenging condition for the tournament.

Seasoned professionals such as Wayne Grady, Ozzie Moore and Terry Price all agreed that the standard of the course presented for the NSW Open was one of the best that they had played in tournament golf this year.  This is high prize indeed for a public course from such a group of experience professionals – all stalwarts of Australian Golf that have played at the very top level all over the world for the past two decades.

Ozzie Moore, in particular highlighted the course’s excellent condition and testing layout in an interview with Australian Radio Network’s Graham Hughes after his first round 69 at Moore Park.

“I was surprised about just how good the course played’, he commented. 'I know this is a public course – but it really is in excellent shape'.  In response to a question about the course quality, Ozzie elaborated: 'well its condition is certainly impressive. You have private Golf Clubs spending a lot more money on machinery and greenkeeping in servicing their courses – but this (Moore Park) is as good as anything around Sydney in terms of condition and layout.' 

The younger aspiring professionals also felt that the course more than stood up during the four day Non Vida event.  Most tournament players spoken to said that Moore Park was the best turned out layout they had played on since the commencement of the Non Vida tour back in February this year.

Rodney Booth, an emerging young star from Victoria claimed a new course record with a sizzling 62 on the opening day - and stated that playing Moore Park was a great experience. 'The layout provided a really good mixture of reward and challenge, and the greens were in great shape,’ he said. 'AlI in all, it’s a great course to play.'

The quality and standard of Moore Park was certainly appreciated by the two players who fought out the exciting finish of the event – young star Tony McFadyean and leading amateur Rick Kulacz, both from WA and both former greenkeepers.

Rick pipped Tony with a brave par on the first payoff hole to win the title after both players had tied at 10 under after 72 holes.

In accepting the time-honoured NSW Open trophy (the first amateur to do so since Tony Gresham in 1969) Rick was quick to praise the excellent condition of the course over the 4 days and passed on his appreciation to the hard working ground staff of the Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust.  'The course really stood up and gave me a lot of confidence this week,' he stated. 'The consistent way it played over the four days meant good golf was rewarded consistent and bad golf was punished equally - which is the way you want it to be.'

Tony – who although finishing runner up was able to pocket the $18,000 winners cheque as the leading professional – didn’t mince words about Moore Park’s credentials. 'There’s no public course in Perth that would come close to this at the moment,' he said. '..and I should know, having been a greenkeeper for years there before turning pro.'

Moore Park Golf Course offers its championship 18 layout to the public 7 days a week. For bookings ring (02) 9663 1064 or go online to www.mooreparkgolf.com.au

A range of enticing membership packages are also on offer to join the Moore Park Golf Club – providing regular privileged access to the quality multi-purpose golf facility at Moore Park 12 months of the year . For further inquiries visit the above website or ring (02) 9697 3877.