Steven Bowditch on the 8th hole at Coolum yesterday. Source: Getty Images - Herald Sun

Steven Bowditch on the 8th hole at Coolum yesterday. Source: Getty Images

LOCAL boy Steve Bowditch has delivered a passionate plea for a top tournament to fill the void after the Australian PGA bids farewell today and secret discussions are hatching the possibility of a new Sunshine Coast Classic for 2013.

The recent success of the reactivated Queensland PGA at Toowoomba's City Golf Club has demonstrated how successful tournaments can be in regional Queensland.

Creating a second-tier $115,000 event may not have the same lustre as a $1.25 million Australian PGA at Palmer Coolum Resort, but it would quell anxiety that there will be a decline in the region's golf industry when it leaves.

"I went along to the old Coolum Classic when I was 11 and 12 and it's vital that the Sunshine Coast stays on the map with its own tournament. Definitely," Bowditch said.

Sources indicate there have already been talks between the PGA of Australasia and the proactive Sunshine Coast Council, a key backer of the Australian PGA keen to see a golf presence sustained with the likelihood the event is moving to the Gold Coast.

Backing of a golf tournament is already locked into annual budgets of Sunshine Coast companies and even skipping one year could see an event drop off the map for good.

Steve Hutchison, general manager of Coolum's highly-rated golf course neighbour Twin Waters, said it was imperative the Sunshine Coast retained a tournament considering the history dates back to nine stagings of the Coolum Classic in the 1990s.

"To hold down a similar date with an tournament is very important for the whole Sunshine Coast as a golf destination," Hutchison said.

"For two weeks around the PGA, we do a lot of rounds at Twin Waters, we host the Holden Scramble, junior golf is big and other local courses are doing good business with groups flying in to play and watch the golf. You don't want to put that at risk."

Palmer Coolum Resort owner Clive Palmer did indicate yesterday that he was receptive to hosting a lesser event should the Australian PGA head elsewhere as expected.

"The Queensland Open and others have not been contested for some years and need to be reinvigorated. We definitely want to have more tournaments at Coolum," Palmer said.

Bowditch got to eight-under-par in yesterday's third round but an errant drive pulled into the lake on the par four 10th for bogey stalled his round and his hopes went backwards.