Q Golf - Official online magazine for Golf Queensland Spring 2015 | Page 26

The life & times of
TONY ROLLINS
By David Newbery
Former Queensland Golf Union (now Golf
Queensland) boss Tony Rollins is one of those rare
individuals who can’t resist the call to volunteer
for golf duties at some of Queensland’s leading
tournaments.
If you’ve attended a Queensland Open, Queensland
amateur championship, Gary Player Classic or any
other leading Golf Queensland-run tournaments,
chances are you have come across him. He’s the
guy setting the pins, starting the field, course
marshalling, sorting out rules disputes, checking
the cards in the scorer’s hut, emceeing and even
phoning in the results to newspapers long after the
event has ended.
“I’m just a volunteer,” he said modestly. “They
call on me when they are short of people.” Tony
developed a love and fascination for golf from an
early age as his father, a good golfer, was caretaker
of Claremont Golf Club in Tasmania.
“We lived four houses from the golf club,” he
said. “I started off as a caddie, was captain of
the caddies and then caddie master. I have been
involved in golf administration for 50 years. I
started helping out doing the handicapping at
Claremont.”
His first real job was in banking before moving
to Claude Neon Signs as credit manager and
eventually state accounts manager. “I stayed
there for 15 years (1965-1980) and during that
time I was the Elderslie Golf Club captain and
delegate and became honorary secretary for
the Southern Country Golf Association and the
Southern Tasmanian Golf Union and treasurer of the
Tasmanian Golf Council,” Tony said.
“The Golf Council said they needed a full-time
secretary and I became the first fully paid secretary
and stayed for eight years.” In 1987, QGU vicepresident Peter Davies approached me with an offer
to move to Queensland. He said Bill Kennedy, the
executive director, was going to retire and asked if
I’d be interested.
“I said yes, put in an application, got the job and
started work on 8-8-1988. Down south, they joked
that I was going to Queensland to take over from
Joh Bjelke-Petersen, who was supposed to retire on
that day.”

26 Q Golf Spring 2015

www.golfqueensland.org.au

“I assisted Bill for 18 months and then took over as
executive director and retired on 30th November
2005.” Tony retired to care for his ill wife Andie who
subsequently passed away in early 2008.
Still, Tony’s passion and commitment for golf never
waned and in June 2009 that familiar, cheeky grin
returned when he married Townsville’s Sue Duncan.
In a golf career spanning 50 years, Tony has rubbed
shoulders with the likes of Greg Norman, Ian
Baker-Finch, Adam Scott, Jason Day and other elite
players, but mixing with club golfers from metro
clubs to remote country clubs is something he
enjoys immensely. He loves the camaraderie of the
players from the bush courses.
“I admire people who play in the bush and I have
made a lot of friends along the way,” he said.
Tony, who volunteers at the annual Country Week
tournaments, has played in numerous sand green
championships.
As executive director at the QGU, Tony made a
commitment to attend District Golf Association
meetings in Queensland. “I probably went to most
of them,” he said. “We made a pact that we would
be involved in their AGM – to fly the flag, answer
their questions and keep them informed.”
Resurrecting the Inter-Association matches with
former QGU president John Thorsen is another
proud achievement. “The event had fallen away so
John and I tabled a plan to resurrect it and it’s still
going today,” he said.
When the annual Gary Player Classic comes around
each September Tony and a few other volunteers
like Barry Shepherd are there at first light and are
often last to leave the course. Tony helps start the
field and makes sure the juniors are keeping pace
with the group ahead of them. I ask Tony if he has
met Gary Player.
“Yes, John Thorsen and I met him at Sanctuary
Cove in 1999 when he was an ambassador for
Avon,” he said. “We were supposed to have a
15-minute meeting with him and it turned into 45
minutes. He’s unbelievable and continues to send
money each year to support the event, which has
been going for around 40 years.”
One of the highlights of Tony’s career in golf
was taking Kooralbyn International School
representatives Adam Scott, Gavin Flint and
Peter Briant to the International Schools Teams
Championship in Scotland in 1997. “We (Australia)
finished runners-up to France, but even then
everyone thought Adam had tremendous potential
– not only for his golfing ability, but how he handled
himself,” Tony said.