By Luke Dodemaide

When Brent Hetaraka says Cooktown Golf Club is “a nightmare”, Open-style specialists the world over will know he says so with affection.

It’s a nine-hole course where pars are scarce and birdies are all but endangered, and that’s before you mention the Far North Queensland heat.

“It’s right on the coast, so it is a links-type course,” says Hetaraka, who has been president since 2023.

“Cooktown being Cooktown, we get 30 to 40 knots daily for seven months of the year. So, it’s an unbelievable layout and it’s in a location that you can crush your ego very quickly.”

Unfortunately, the challenges in recent years have also extended off the course, with Cyclone Jasper being the club’s ground zero.

“It caused a fair bit of damage to the course,” says Hetaraka.

“The club hit a brick wall because we didn’t have much money in the bank to do the repairs.”

Even before Cyclone Jasper, it wasn’t all rosy skies. Hetaraka also concedes that Cooktown had a stuffy and staid atmosphere, which could be quite standoffish for newcomers.

“We had to break that stigma because we needed new blood,” says Hetaraka.

“We wanted to turn it into a community place instead of just a little private club for 20-odd old boys who have been there forever.”

In search of answers, Hetaraka and a small group from Cooktown Golf Club made their way to a Golf Australia workshop funded by Queensland Sport and Rec and facilitated by Queensland Clubs and Facilities Manager Andrew Leventis.

More than 40 clubs and 100 club officials attended the four workshops which are regularly held across Queensland.

“In our session in Cairns, I think there were presidents from nine clubs in Far North Queensland who turned up,” says Hetaraka.

“Andrew Leventis brings a lot of his Golf Australia reps with him. There was a representative (Virginia Irwin), who is from Golf Australia’s Women and Girls team, and she's pushing that side of it, which we needed.”

For Hetaraka, the governance session highlighted the importance of modernising the club’s administration and breaking away from old habits.

“The constitution we had was from the ’90s,” says Hetaraka.

“I think it’s fairly common with remote sporting clubs that they just get stuck in their ways for 10 years, and then it becomes a mess, honestly.”

Additionally, on the back of Cyclone Jasper, Half Moon Bay Golf Club and Cairns Golf Club donated junior golf clubs, women’s golf clubs, and over 4000 balls to Cooktown Golf Club, which prompted a direct and tangible uplift around the club.

“It’s totally turned our club around,” says Hetaraka.

“We’ve got new members coming in. We’ve got money in the bank now.

“People are understanding the technicalities of actually running a not-for-profit. For remote clubs, it’s just ideal.”

QLD Club and Facilities manager Andrew Leventis is thrilled at the positive feedback from clubs who attend these annual workshops.

“We are constantly reviewing what we deliver to get the best outcomes for those who attend," he said.

“With clubs attending as small as 12 members and some with 1200+, it can be a balancing act on the topics we deliver, but we seem to be hitting the mark.

"Additionally it provides networking opportunities for clubs to learn from each other’s successes and challenges”.

With a retooled administration, healthier bank balance, and a more progressive approach, Cooktown Golf Club is ready for its close-up, which happens to be the Cooktown Open this weekend.

“A lot of the low-handicapper guys from Cairns and those southern big clubs are racing up here just to take the challenge on, because the word’s getting around,” Hetaraka concluded.