Southport Golf Club announces new WPGA Tour Pro-am
By Bernadette Lance, General Manager Southport Golf Club
It is with a great deal of pride that, as General Manager of Southport Golf Club and as a woman golfer, I can announce, and invite you to embrace, an exciting golf event for the ages.
Together with the WPGA Australasian Tour and the PGA of Australia, the ‘Southport Golf Club WPGA Tour 2023 Pro-Am’ will be presented on our fabulous course in March 2023.
While the Pro-Am is scheduled for Monday 13 March 2023, we have created an event that will see the ‘first shot’ played three weeks beforehand with a Nine&Dine Dinner with our guest speaker Gavin Kirkman, CEO of PGA Australia addressing ‘The Future of Golf’.
Three weeks later the next Scheduled Nine&Dine event will feature a discussion on our theme – Celebrating Women in Sport – Celebrating women in golf.
The weekend program will feature touring professionals working with women and junior golfers in a series of clinics. On the course there will be a ‘shoot-out’ for the professional players looking to be ‘nearest-the-pin’ to win a cash prize.
Rounding out the weekend will be a Welcome Reception for the professional players, sponsors. VIPs, media, members and guests.
Of course the featured event will be a Pro-Am with two fields playing out the final day for cash and prizes with the presentation dinner on Monday evening.
I am particularly proud to announce that the purse on offer to the professional women players will match that of the Men’s Southport Pro-Am presented annually for the past 10 years at Southport Golf Club. Just a few short years ago I suggest that this equitable outcome would not have been considered.
My own journey
Twenty-six years ago (1996), with a soaring ambition to become a professional golfer, I started working for the Southport Golf Club. No matter that I was washing dishes and picking up range balls. I was going to conquer the world of golf.
At the time I was a leading QLD Amateur representing QLD twice (1994 & 1995) and had a scholarship from the QLD Academy of Sport.
By 2004, recognising that I was not going to make it to the professional ranks, I dedicated myself to the Southport Golf Club. I took on the Golf Operations Manager role in 2008 and in 2019 I was appointed the General Manager.
It has been quite a journey.
Throughout my time at the club I have witnessed many challenges come and go and, as I have grown into my various roles, I have recognised some challenges are dealt with quickly while others linger.
My first three years as General Manager were dominated with the impact of COVID and while it was a challenge, I consider bigger challenges can be found in dealing with cultural change.
In 2011 I was part of a team that transitioned the women of the club from being known as Associates (with their own committee) to becoming members of the club with the club taking on responsibility for providing competition resources to the women members. Today many women members choose to be full Ordinary Members of the club and occupy board positions (could be more).
So it is with enormous pride in announcing the Southport Golf Club WPGA Pro-Am, its theme and all that it celebrates, that I take another step in my journey with the club.
I am seeking the support of organisations and individuals who understand my journey and who will enthusiastically join with me and Southport Golf Club in celebrating women in sport and celebrating women in golf.