Men and women who have undergone open heart surgery enjoyed the sunny conditons today at the Spring Valley Golf Club for the annual Open Heart Open. Thomas Chapman (Cape Schank) recorded a solid score of 35 stableford points off a handicap of 29 to take out the Don Lawerence Trophy for the first time. Chapman had an outstanding back nine of 21 points. Runner up for the day, on a countback, was Brian Chappel (Green Acres) with a score of 33 off a handicap of 16. In the women’s sector, Louise Farrar (14), from Wodonga took the honour with a score of 31 points.
The Open Heart Open now in its 25th year, was initiated by Commonwealth Golf Club member, Con Davie and the late Don Lawrence, a Victoria Golf Club member and renowned golf writer for many years with the Melbourne Herald. Lawrence and Davie approached the former Victorian Golf Association in 1988 with the suggestion to start an event for both men and women players who had undertaken various forms of heart surgery after becoming aware of a similar concept in the United States.
This year saw players from 34 different clubs compete with an age ranging from 40-92. That’s right, Maurice Buckley from Rossdale walked the fairways today at the age of 92. Maurice along with all other competitors should be congratulated on their achievements.
In 2013, Golf Victoria raised the awareness of this event amongst Victoria and Channel 9, and in particular Jo Hall, decided to support this event by making a segment that was aired on the Victorian news last Friday. Thank you to the players that gave their time to the filming of this segment which hopefully will help us promote the event for 2014.
Please click here to view results and Channel 9 news story from Friday 3 May.