Asian boost for NZ Open field

The 2018 New Zealand Open field just keeps getting deeper.

Less than two weeks after three golfers ranked in the top-100 signed on, the two leading lights on the Asian Tour and the Japan Tour over the last decade, Scott Hend and KT Kim, have confirmed they will compete in the 99th edition of the tournament.

Hend, from Australia, has been in the top-four on the Asian Tour Order of Merit each of the last five years, including top money winner in 2016, while Kim has been money leader twice on the lucrative Japan Golf Tour, where he has won 13 times, and played in the Presidents Cup.

Their entries are a direct result of the co-sanction agreement with the ISPS Handa PGA Tour of Australasia and the Asian Tour, and the developing partnership with the Japan Golf Tour.

‘‘We have been chasing KT to come to our tournament for three years now, while Scott Hend has been the standout player on the Asian Tour over the last few years,’’ tournament director Michael Glading said.

Both players have also performed successfully around the world, with Kim also playing numerous events on the Asian Tour and the PGA Tour, while Hend is a full member of the European Tour (where he has won twice) as well as plying his trade on the Asian Tour and PGA Tour of Australasia.

This year’s New Zealand Open, which will boast a $1.2 million prize purse, will be hosted at Millbrook Resort and The Hills at Arrowtown near Queenstown from March 1-4.

In addition to Hend and Kim,

2011 New Zealand Open Champion Brad Kennedy, who lost in a playoff (along with Kiwi Ben Campbell) to Mike Hendry last year, and fellow proven Australians Andrew Dodt and Marcus Fraser have also been confirmed in the field.

Former major winner YE Yang (Korea), who is renowned for being the first Asian player to win a major, when he defeated Tiger Woods down the stretch in the 2009 US PGA Championship, will also return for a second successive year.

Dodt is a two-time winner on the European Tour, where he still plies his trade, winning NZ$1.56m last year, which helped him to a world ranking well inside the top200.

Fraser is a six-time European Tour winner, with earnings in Europe of around NZ$800,000 in

2017. He partnered Hend in the Australian team at the Rio Olympics, leading after two rounds and eventually finishing fifth.

They join PGA Tour star KJ Choi, superstar Americans off the Japan Tour in Chan Kim and Steven Han, defending champion Hendry and fellow Kiwis Ryan Fox, Tim Wilkinson and Steven Alker to confirm their starts in Queenstown.

‘‘I am confident that 2018 will be the strongest field in our time staging this event,’’ Glading said.

‘‘Having a recent Asian Tour money-winner, a recent Presidents Cup player, and a major champion is a real coup for us.’’