Well it’s that time of the year again when we reflect back over the year that was and ask ourselves, “Where’s it gone?” As founder and President of The Invincibles Sunshine Coast Junior Golfing Tour, it gave me and the committee of The Invincibles Tour a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction to be able to welcome everyone to our dinner to help celebrate and acknowledge the performances and achievements of our juniors throughout 2011!

From this in 2010

To paradise in 2011

For those that can remember back to last years dinner “and it only seems like yesterday” that we were here fighting our way through torrential storms in an attempt to celebrate The Invincibles seventh Annual Junior Presentation Dinner which was quite an adventure!

To this year “Thanks to the generosity of Maurice Holland - General Manager of Hyatt Regency Coolum” and his team along with that of Staging Connections, we were able to sit back in the comfort and surrounds of the magnificently prepared “Pavilion” to celebrate the achievements of our aspiring young golfers and I must say, it was absolutely magnificent to see our juniors, their families and friends dressed up in their finest, excited and ready to celebrate the great year we’ve had on Tour!!!

As master of ceremonies, it was quite a privilege to be able to welcome our special guests in Councilor (Coroner) Tim Dwyer, deputy Mayor of the Sunshine Coast, Peter Egan Senior Economic Development Officer - Major Events Sunshine Coast Council, Maurice Holland - Hyatt Regency Coolum and Kathy Rogers Queensland Sport and Recreation, Mark Brady – Noosa Springs, Tim Gall Pelican Waters and Stephen Porter from Peregian Springs, Mel & Gill Luke IGA Supa, Moss & Barbara Thislewaite representing our Zone and District, Roy and Kim McLean Drummond Golf and Tim Manic, Chris Charchalis, Ryan Densley who were there representing IGA Fresh.

It was also a great pleasure to able to publicly thank and extend our appreciation to Tony Roosenburg, Rosanne and Neil Goddard and Robyn Smith from TRP Sports, The Hyatt Regency Coolum and the PGA of Australia for allowing us the use of their incredible facilities at such an important time of the year, which is something I don’t believe would happen anywhere else in Australia if not the world?

I think most would agree that The Invincibles Tour and their guests were extremely privileged to be able to celebrate their special evening “at Home of the Australian PGA Championship” in such incredible surrounds during the week of one of Australia’s major sporting events, The Australian PGA Championship.

The Tour and their Committee would also like to take the opportunity to pass on their thanks and appreciation to our junior co-ordinators and volunteers who did a fantastic job throughout 2011 supporting The Invincibles Tour, our juniors and their golf clubs on the Sunshine Coast. Their generosity and support was overwhelming and helps make The Invincibles Tour what it is today, a vibrant hub for junior golf on the Sunshine Coast!!!

Thanks to modern technology “and the very generous support of Michael Williams and his team at Staging Connections” it gave me and everyone present an enormous thrill to be able to welcome Matthew Durham via Skype to our dinner.

As most of you are aware, Matthew is a young Invincibles / Caloundra member “2 handicap” who suffered a severe stroke whilst competing in their Club Match Play Championships back in August. It gave everyone present a great thrill to interact with Matthew and hear his thoughts on his progress and future. Matthew and his mother Leanne also took the opportunity to thank everyone for their support and best wishes. Matthew is doing well and is now back home on the Sunshine Coast at the Caloundra Rehabilitation Centre (opposite the RSL) and is looking forward to catching up with family and friends!

The Invincibles Tour or “The Tour” as it’s affectionately known has grown so much over the past eight years, in particular the past year. I personally find it quite remarkable to think that some eight short years ago “prior to The Invincibles Tour” junior golf was in disarray and in real need of a complete overhaul, to now where I believe thanks to The Invincibles Tour, their committee, an enormously generous team of sponsors, our community and of cause our great network of Golf Clubs we are well on our way to developing a Junior Golf Program that’s second to none anywhere!!!

I believe the sheer fact that we hosted our Invincibles Junior Presentation Diner at the Home of The Australian PGA Championship, at such an important time, sends out the strongest possible message to everyone, including our juniors and their families, that the Hyatt Regency Coolum, the Queensland Government, PGA Australia, TRP Sports, Sunshine Coast Council, Golf Queensland and our sponsors appreciate the effort The Invincibles Tour is putting in to making sure you, our junior golfers have access to a well run Junior development Program and get every opportunity to follow their dreams and reach their full potential in a safe and friendly environment!

Two of the major supporters and sponsors of the Australian PGA Championship and The Invincibles Tour are the Queensland Government and the Sunshine Coast Council and we would like to take this opportunity to thank both the Queensland Government and Sunshine Coast Council for their endorsement and support of The Invincibles Junior Golfing Tour!

In particular I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Minister for Sport Mr Phil Reeves and Greg Laverty, Peter Egan and Tim Dwyer from the Sunshine Coast Council for their incredible support.

Our Deputy Mayor was invited to say a few words on behalf of the Council and performed a very important duty which was to draw the lucky winner for a spot in the 2011 Australian PGA Championship Pro-Am which just happened to be Aneka Park (Caloundra)

The Invincibles committee is more than aware that none of what we have done or achieved, could have been done without the help and support of the community and a lot of very generous men, women and their organizations.

Their support and encouragement has enabled us to stabilize The Tour which in turn has enabled us to set in place improvements at all levels of our program throughout 2011, to create a healthier and more vibrant future for our junior golfers here on the Sunshine Coast and this most certainly couldn’t have been done without a strong belief, support and backing from the community.

So I’d like to take this opportunity to thank and acknowledge those very generous organizations and their secretary managers including Maurice Holland here at the Hyatt Regency Coolum, Mark Brady - Noosa Springs, Tim Gall - Pelican Waters, Stephen Hutchison - Twin Waters and Stephen Porter - Peregian Springs!

These men have led the way in developing junior golf here on the Sunshine Coast and I might add The Tour still wouldn’t have been at all possible without the support and backing from the rest of the team in Roy & Kim McClean - Drummond Golf, Mel & Gill Luke - IGA Stores, Robert Kurz - Coastline BMW, Martin Wright - Srixon Australia, Glenn Lloyd and his team from the PGA, Jack Freeman - Mountain Creeks Meats and Cadbury Australia along with our supporters who have been absolutely incredible. Their input and support along with that of the Queensland Government, Queensland Sport and Recreation Services and the Sunshine Coast Council has been absolutely unbelievable throughout 2011 and that support is something we are enormously grateful for and very appreciative of!!!

I would like to take the opportunity to thank your enormously hard working committee and their very understanding partners (pictured below) for giving us the time and space to promote and develop The Tour. To their credit, the committee of The Invincibles Tour which is made up of some very generous and kind hearted men and women who volunteer their services to help create a better environment for our juniors. These very generous men and women I refer to are Perry Preston – our Vice President, Frank Schmidt - Treasurer, Mandy Johnson - Secretary, Peter Heiniger – Coach and Advisor, Natalie Preston, Brett Park, Marie Pickles, as well as Neil Charkow who I might add is also the man that created The Invincibles Website and keeps it up to date, fresh and informative.

A special thanks to my wife Marshan for her love, trust and support and for allowing me the time and space required to make sure your tour “The Invincibles Tour” is run properly!

My deepest apologies to Natalie Preston and Brett Park for overlooking you in my acknowledgements at pesentation and to anyone that I might have overlooked, it’s never personal or intentional and I do apologise!!!

I would like to make special mention and thank Frank Schmidt for the unbeleivable effort he puts into making sure our finances are in order and to Keith Stockill for the enormouse effort he puts into keeping our stats, records and Calendar of events up to date!

The aim of The Tour is to support all clubs on the Sunshine Coast and give our juniors every opportunity to enjoy their golf and make friends in a safe, friendly and fun environment, an environment where everyone can mix together and enjoy their golf without any unnecessary hassles, and judging from what we have witnessed throughout 2011 we believe most take The Tour seriously and appreciate the effort!

As I said before, throughout 2011 we have seen some massive positives take place within The Invincibles Junior Tour and we would like to take this opportunity to thank a few forward thinking men and women that have helped us move mountains “particularly over the past year” just by endorsing the program and by supporting the Tour. The people I am referring to are Luke Bates CEO Golf Queensland, Adrian Hewat, Golf Queensland Development Officer, Terry Ward, Secretary of the District and Moss Thislewaite Chair of Junior Golf. Rae Clarke, CEO Greg Norman Junior Golf Foundation. We would also like to thank Glenn Lloyd and Anthony Wright, both from the PGA of Australia for their incredible input and support. These men and woman have without doubt thought outside the square by supporting The Tour and by doing so they have helped remove some of the political red tape that so often bogs down initiative and new ideas and for that again we are enormously appreciative!

As you’ve heard from our guest speakers, it’s been a year where we believe, rightly or wrongly that The Invincibles Tour has helped make a difference by bringing our clubs and their juniors on the Sunshine Coast closer together by supporting their junior programs, junior co-coordinators and their officials.

We would like to thank Garry Barker (father of one of our Tour Members, Max) and Perry Orchid along with one of our members Jeniffer Ray for providing the entertainment for us during the evening. Well done Garry, Perry and Jennifer on a great performance.

I would also like to thank Perry Preston (Vice President) for doing an awesome job with the Auction and helping me with presentations. A big thanks to Mikaleigh Pickles, Aneka Park and Javaye Park for the fantastic job they did in helping me host our Presentation Dinner. You looked absolutely beautiful and did a fantastic job!!!

Finally I would like to thank everyone from our juniors, their parents, sponsors and supporters and to anyone who has helped in any way, because collectively you’ve made a huge difference to junior golf!