Sport
16 July, 2025
Golf clubs geared up for Outback Queensland Masters
Richmond and Karumba will host the final two legs of the final Masters series.
Golfers from across Australia will converge on the North West this week as the final two legs of the Outback Queensland Masters are staged in the region.
Richmond Golf Club will play host this weekend, while Karumba Golf Club is the final leg of the 2025 Masters – which is also set to be the grand finale after the series was launched in 2019.
Richmond Golf Club’s Megan Thorncroft said hosting the horde of visitors was a big responsibility, but something the small group of local volunteers looked forward to.
“It’s sold out at Richmond and we’ve got a lot more people coming than we have in the past, so it’s pretty exciting, but there’s lots of work to do at the same time,” she told North West Weekly.
“The course is still green but it’s a bit overgrown at the minute, but we’ve got big plans for the week to get it all mowed.
“There’s a lot to do. There’s about six people who are down there getting it all ready.”
Richmond Golf Club is a nine-hole course with sand greens that still need quite a bit of work.
“We got the course up and running and redid the greens ... then a couple of weeks later it went back underwater again with the river,” Ms Thorncroft said.
“So we’ve had to redo them twice. We’re all-volunteer run, so it’s a fair bit of work.
“There’s definitely an art to raking your greens when you’re playing.”
Richmond Golf Club will have five locals mixing it up with the visitors, who started in Mitchell last month and have since played at Augathella, Blackall and Alpha over the past three weekends.
Ms Thorncroft said the benefit to the Richmond community made it worthwhile.
“Last time we hosted, a lot of businesses said they either broke their records or came close to their biggest trades,” she said.
“So that was really good. The people that come and play, they often come around Tuesday, so they’re here for a whole week in town spending money. We’re lucky that the council puts up the funds so they do get the event to come to Richmond because it’s definitely benefiting the whole town.”