Rain delays strengthen case for moving showpiece to February

A question kept recurring during the New Zealand Women’s Open, particularly during its split final round: Will the tournament remain in September or move to February?

Tournament director Michael Goldstein will chat with his stakeholders before answering that, after squalls threatened to truncate the country’s debut Ladies Professional Golf Association event.

The LPGA’s preference is to move the McKayson-sponsored tournament alongside the Australian Open in February to create economies of scale. Any such change requires negotiations with tournament partners who backed hosting it in September.

The past two days have strengthened the LPGA argument, given the Auckland spring’s vulnerability to the elements.

“We have long-term contracts with a lot of partners so we’ll have a debrief and work out what we’re going to do,” Goldstein said.

He stressed he would not have done anything differently when faced with the adversity of the last round.

“We anticipated this golf course would have wind and rain in September. But look at the scoring [Brooke Henderson won on 17-underpar]. You can’t say it ruined the tournament.

“The LPGA make the decisions inside the ropes and we trusted them to do that. It maintained the integrity of the tournament keeping it as a 72-hole championship.” Goldstein paid tribute to his team. “Obviously they had to scramble. We called out through the volunteers and they turned up in droves today. The operational work has been phenomenal. It comes at a cost, but displays our attitude to the event.

“We want it to be here for a long time and over the last 24 hours we wanted to show this is a huge championship for New Zealand by finishing it the right way.”

In a June interview with the Herald Goldstein estimated the tournament costs would be $5.5 million.

He said the weather would take money out of their bottom line.

“In the greater scheme of things that is a relatively small amount. I have no doubt it’s been a huge success. To bring the tour here is a big undertaking and the Kiwi public understood the significance.” — Andrew Alderson