Pakenham golfer Andrew Villinger broke the Garfield Golf Club course record with a round of 63 recently.Villinger shows his style at Pakenham on Saturday.By John Gavegan
ANDREW Villinger is a man with a mean golf game.
To prove it, he recently tamed the fairways and greens at Garfield Golf Club with a record 63 off the stick.
A member of Pakenham Golf Club, Villinger (off scratch) led his team to win the annual Garfield Plate last Saturday week.
Villinger, who lives at Korumburra, is also a member at Devil Bend, Portsea and the National Golf Club.
His brilliant round at Garfield included 10 birdies, four pars and four bogeys.
However, due to a local rule of preferred lies on the day, Garfield deemed Villinger’s record unofficial, even though it will probably never be bettered.
“It’s still a record as far as I’m concerned,” he said.
However it is not his best round as he once “destroyed” Yarrawonga Golf Course with a superb 62.
To the amazingly talented Villinger, shooting subpar golf is routine and he has a string of titles and tournament wins over the years too numerous to list.
“They tend to blur a bit over the years,” he laughed modestly.
He has represented Peninsula and West Gippsland in Country Week for the past 13 years, playing against the top players in the state, and has won prestigious Ivo Whitton events, again against top state players, the most recent being in March at Traralgon, where he shot fiveunder for 72 holes.
Since taking up golf at 16 at his home in Sorrento, he has gone around the world, playing in America and England.
He has seen four British Opens and a US Masters and played the grand old lady of St Andrews, shooting threeunder.
“Highlights were seeing Tiger Woods win the 2000 British Open and the retiring Jack Nicklaus’ emotional last walk over the historic stone bridge – it was unforgettable,” he said.
Villinger also caddied for a friend, professional Mark Cato, in the US in several tournaments, which he described as a great experience.
He also tasted the tournament life himself in America for more than 18 months, playing the Ben Hogan secondary tour, where players gain experience and hone their games for the top events.
“It was tough and it cost me a fortune for air fares and hotels and,although I won two events, I was in my early 20s and too young at the time. It would be different now,” he said.
Villinger has his own business, Windows by Design, based in North Dandenong, which manufactures residential and light commercial windows.
He has found that this takes up much of his time and golf practice has suffered.
“I used to practice a lot, if I had more time now, maybe I’d shoot better scores,” he laughed.
Villinger, who has had eight holes in one, regards his driving and short game, chipping and putting, as his strengths.
“My driving’s pretty good and I hit on average 96 per cent of fairways off the tee,” he said.
He averages about 285 metres off the tee, but there was one memorable one during a Country Week played at Metropolitan.
“It was the parfive sixth, 460 metres and I finished 90 metres from the green – that’s about 370 metres, I really got hold of that one,” he said.
Villinger has played on courses throughout Australia and overseas and regards Metropolitan as the best.
“It’s magnificent, I’d even rate it better than St Andrews. Unfortunately I just missed a draw to play a social game at Augusta that’s also a superb course,” he said.
Villinger has one rule with golf: make sure it’s fun. An example is the friendly competition he runs with Trafalgar’s Peter Brown, another fine golfer on a plusthree handicap.
“Peter and I are seeing how many rounds in a row we can shoot under 70 – so far he’s on 12 and I’m on nine – it’s great fun,” he said.
Sport is in the family as wife Michelle is a former statelevel netballer who plays with Korumburra.
So far they have no children.
“Of course not, there’d be no time for golf,” he laughed.
