GMAQ - Golf Management Australia Queensland GMAQ Spring 2018 | Page 16

GMAQ NEWS
MAROOCHY RIVER GOLF CLUB
PLANS $1M MINIATURE COURSE
T
he Sunshine Coast
may have a new
tourist attraction in
place for Christmas with
Maroochy River Golf Club
set to proceed with plans to
tap into a booming pastime
that plays to its strength.
Members voted on Tuesday
night to expand its David
Low Way facilities to include
an 18-hole miniature golf
course, estimated to cost up
to $1.25 million followed by
a nine-hole pitch and putt
course and a par three nine-
hole course.
A long-term vision would
also build a 20-30 unit golfer
accommodation complex.
The former Horton Park
Golf Club relocated to its
Graham Marsh design 18-
hole championship course to
make way for the SunCentral
development.
Club president Michael Gray
said the goal was not just
the revenue but also to offer
different entry point to the
game and to allow members
to retain a whole-of-life
involvement with it.
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What’s proposed and which
would now be the subject of
a development application
to Sunshine Council, was a
sophisticated putting game
for all age groups that bore
only passing resemblance
to the clowns and windmill
old-style mini and crazy golf
courses.
“We’ve got a great
championship golf course,
which is the premier course
on the Sunshine Coast and
getting better all the time,”
Mr Gray said.
“But it’s not suited to all
levels of play”
“We’re striving to make the
golf club a destination with a
range of experiences around
our core business which is
golf”.
Golf Coast-based golf
course designer Richard
Chamberlain said while
played solely with a putter,
the courses developed y his
Mini Golf Creation business
replicated the shapes and
styles of a real golf course.
In the past two and a half
years he’s built five all of
which he said were “making
serious amounts of money”.
Mr Chamberlain said as well
as attracting casual players
the clubs were also running
competitive leagues and
tournaments.
What’s proposed for
Maroochy River was an
18-hole, 2500sq m of
playing surface with the
rest a landscape of babbling
brooks creeks and other
landscaping. Each hole
would cover 60sqm and
offer both risk and reward.