Greats in action over next five days
A SLEW of golfing greats will be in the South over the coming days.
Wanaka, North Otago and Dunedin’s Chisholm Park are all set to host legends proam tournaments.
The first will be in Wanaka tomorrow, before moving to Oamaru on Saturday and Dunedin on Sunday and Monday.
All three are part of the Australasian Legends Tour and will feature some bignames of the past.
They will be played in a strokeplay format, with a shotgun start.
Prior to that a ‘‘test match’’ legends event will be held in Wanaka today between New Zealand and Australia, with teams of eight playing in a matchplay fourball format.
It will make for five big days of golf, but Dunedin tournament director John Evans said preparations were going well.
He said it was a ‘‘top field’’ with twothirds of the players having won professional tournaments in the past.
That included the likes of Peter Fowler, Matt Pettigrew, Tim Elliott, Brad Burns, Colin Hunt and Dunedinproduct Greg Turner, among several other big names.
The Dunedin tournament would be played both morning and afternoon, with the top players set to begin in the afternoon.
Preparations for that session would begin at noon on both days.
He said while the recent rain would have been more welcome several weeks ago, the course would still be in good shape and test the players’ abilities.
Alongside that there were 20kmh25kmh winds expected, which would add another dynamic.
He expected the tournament would wrap up around 5pm6pm on Monday, with the presentation from about 6pm7pm.
Things were looking similar in Oamaru, which will host Saturday’s North Otago Legends proam.
Tournament director Stan Ruddenklau said preparations had gone well and the community was looking forward to the tournament.
‘‘It’s one of the biggest tournaments we’ve had on the course in some time,’’ he said.
‘‘[Preparation has] gone very well actually.
‘‘The course was looking very good. It’s got a lot of water running over it at the minute, but that will disappear [quickly] if the rain stops in time.’’
The event was a oneday strokeplay tournament, with a 10.30am shotgun start.
It will be in Wanaka that things would get under way, though.
There a similarly strong field will play in the proam, while being boosted by one of New Zealand’s greatest golfers in Sir Bob Charles.
Tournament director Alan Rose said Charles, who won the British Open in 1963, had played the course prior to Christmas and enjoyed it.
After being alerted to the proam tournament, he decided he would come back and play in it.
That was a big bonus and, being the first proam to be held in Wanaka, there was plenty of excitement around.
Like the other courses, Rose said the Wanaka one was looking fairly wet, although that was much needed and would help with growth.
It was also a oneround event and would begin at 11am.
All three encouraged the public to head along and watch, with free admission for all events.