NZ Open returns to Queenstown
New Zealand’s national Open returns to Queenstown and joins the Japan Tour.
The New Zealand Open will return to Queenstown in 2014 and become the biggest golf tournament hosted in New Zealand for many years.
The tournament is co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour of Australasia and the move to The Hills Golf Course and Millbrook Resort, held from February 27 to March 2, also sees the event form part of the Japan Tour for the first ever time.
The event will be played as a pro-am format for the first time which will see amateurs paired with the professionals in the same fashion as the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
Brian Thorburn, the Chief Executive Officer of the PGA of Australia, commended the positive moves made by the New Zealand golfing bodies.
“The New Zealand Open is an integral tournament on the PGA Tour of Australasia and I am pleased to see it sitting alongside our other premier tournaments including the Australian PGA Championship and the Australian Open,” said Thorburn.
“Our Professionals enjoy returning to Queenstown and with the introduction of the pro-am format made so successful by the NZPGA, the New Zealand Open is sure to be a highlight on the PGA Tour of Australasia in 2014.”