Lynne Mowbray | The annual Queensland Golf Industry awards were held last Tuesday night in the Grand Ballroom at Jupiter’s Casino on the Gold Coast. With over 470 members of the Queensland and Northern NSW golfing fraternity gathered together in this prestigious location, it looked more like the Grammy’s than the QLD Golf awards. Yamba Golf and Country Club’s Golf operations manager Chris Durrington said that they have been nominated for the award numerous times before and never won. “Yamba had been nominated for the award two years in a row, but out of around 40 Golf Clubs from as far away as Cairns, we weren’t feeling very confident,” Mr Durrington said. “When the announcement came that Yamba had won best Regional Tournament for the second year in a row (out of five finalists), it was fair to say we were somewhat surprised and overjoyed. “President of the Yamba Golf Club Tony Moran gave a heartfelt speech in which he emphasised that without major sponsor Crowe Horwath, as well as many other sponsors throughout the valley, this would never have been possible. “Tony also praised our superintendent Mark Ryan and his Green staff for the work they put into the course and maintaining it at such a high level. “The award comes from the nomination by the Queensland PGA and voted for by the Professionals who play in these tournaments; so to win, not only once – but twice, is one of the greatest honours we could have received as a club. “The announcement received a huge amount of applause with many dignitaries taking the time to congratulate us personally and saying that they have heard nothing by great things about our little town and course. “The Yamba Golf Club was also finalists for three other awards; our Professional John Wright was a finalist for ‘Club Pro of the Year’ and the club was a finalist for ‘Tournament of the Year’ and ‘Regional Tournament of the Year’. “Our course and club is just going from strength to strength in a climate that see’s so many clubs folding and it is great to know that we can provide a top quality golf course that can match it with the best,” he said.