By RUSSELL BENNETT
THE heritage behind The Heritage Golf Club wasn’t lost on local youngster Brad McGill as he took out the 2014 Victorian Men’s Amateur Foursomes Championship at the course just last month.
With great mate and playing partner David Micheluzzi, Brad – a member at both Berwick Montuna and Cranbourne golf clubs – took out the prestigious 36-hole tournament by just a stroke from Keysborough pair Clay Nicholls and Craig Rimington.
“It’s a great course and it was very cool to win that,” McGill told the News at Berwick Montuna recently, still beaming after the victory.
“You get this big trophy and it’s got names on there from about 1900.
“My coach has won it, and so has Stewart Appleby, so it’s pretty cool to get your name on there alongside theirs.”
McGill knows his stuff. The Victorian Men’s Amateur Foursomes Championship started in 1903 and past winners include Bob Shearer, Brad Hughes and Stephen Allan – in addition to Appleby.
The Foursomes win was just the latest chapter in an encouraging 12 months for McGill, who has shot a number of particularly low rounds in an effort to get his handicap (around 2) back to around scratch.
It’s a far cry from when he was playing off 36 in March 2011 and thinking to himself ‘how good is this!’
“I shot about 120 in my first game and I’m nearly half that now, so that’s something pretty cool to think about,” he said.
McGill still splits his golfing time between Berwick Montuna and Cranbourne, and is looking for more tournament success at the tail-end of the year and into 2015.
“I just want to play well in them, keep working on my golf and hopefully in a couple of years do my traineeship and a couple of years after that see where my golf is and hopefully try the Q (Qualifying) school,” McGill said.
“It costs a fair bit to enter for four days so I want to make sure my golf is at the right point.
“I just want to play consistent golf – go out there and shoot a couple under par consistently, instead of once every two weeks.”
McGill looks up to certain players on the professional circuit, such as American 2007 US Masters winner Zach Johnson.
“I look up to him because he doesn’t hit the ball very far but he just hits it down the middle, gets it on the green and putts and chips really well,” McGill said.
“He’s someone I really want to model my game on.”
