Golf Vic Vol 60 No 2 2019

If you’re looking for the most fanatical golfer in Victoria, perhaps even beyond, you’ll be struggling to beat Jane Zhang. In the past 12 months, Jane has played golf 312 times. Think about that. There are 365 days in a year. Some are very hot, some too wet, some you might wake up feeling sick or just not enthusiastic enough to go to the golf course. Jane only had 53 of those days, and “some days I played 36 holes.” A three-handicap member at Rosanna Golf Club, Jane partnered her best friend, Allie Ai, to win the women’s section of the Vic Four-Ball by three points from the experienced pairing of Jenny Foster and Louise Calvert-Jones. Jane and Allie, who finished third last year, qualified for the final two rounds in February after scoring 42 points at Ballarat, where Allie is a member. At Sorrento they scored 39 points and followed up with 42 at Moonah Links, enough to get them over the line. The two girls have been best friends since growing up in Shanghai. They both came to Australia about 11 years ago and now live nearby in Melbourne’s north-east. Jane took up golf five years ago after a career playing table tennis and joined Rosanna soon after. To say golf gripped her is an understatement. “I love it… six days a week, and I really like competing. “I also play regularly with a Chinese group. We play different courses. There are about 60 of us.” And if you’re wondering how Jane’s husband copes with a wife who plays so much golf, worry not. Work commitments mean he’s back in China. Brent McIntyre is your pretty average country golfer. A 40-year- old plumber from Horsham, he plays off a five-handicap and loves everything the game has to offer. His partner at this year’s Vic Four-Ball was from a different mould. Izabella McIntyre is 11 and isn’t quite so obsessed with golf. She was once, when she was about six, but not so much these days because she doesn’t have many friends to play golf with. She took the game up watching her father hit practice balls into a paddock on their hobby farm out of town. Until about the age of nine, she hit balls all the time. Not so much now. Izabella has had a handicap for about two years but she only plays occasionally and according to her father, her form can be scratchy. “I play about once a month and I enjoy it, but it’s disappointing more kids don’t play,” Izabella said. “But I like to play with Dad.” At this year’s championships, Izabella’s form was anything but scratchy. The grade-six student at Horsham West Primary School was on fire. Brent and Izabella played their qualifying round at Horsham and finished first with 45 points. After 46 points at Sorrento, where Izabella dominated the scorecard, they went to Moonah Links for the final 18 holes where Izabella, off her 34 handicap, played beautifully again and guided she and Dad to 44 points and a one-shot victory from Lida and Leszek Kunc from Keysborough Golf Club. “Izabella was very cool, calm and collected,” says Brent. “I wasn’t. “She carried me at Moonah Links… probably had 34 or 35 points by herself.” Whether this win will be the pinnacle of Izabella’s golfing career only time will tell, but right now her father doesn’t really care. “I loved it… winning with my daughter. It was unreal and I’ll certainly never forget it.” THE WOMEN'S WINNERS THE MIXED WINNERS Friends for life … Jane Zhang and Allie Ai hold the trophy high. 42 Golf Victoria