Rare NZ appearance for Wilkinson

Tim Wilkinson has been confirmed for a rare trip home to contest the New Zealand Open and the New Zealand PGA Championship in 2018.

The 39-year-old, who has been a regular on the PGA Tour in the United States since 2008, will be playing his first professional events in New Zealand in 11 years.

He finished in a tie for 16th at the 2007 New Zealand PGA Championship at Clearwater, starting a season which would end in him locking up a full place on the PGA Tour.

His only tournament appearance in New Zealand since was when he played as an invitational guest at his home club’s amateur Manawatu¯ Open when visiting for his brother’s wedding in 2009.

Since then the heavy PGA and Web.com tour schedules have dominated his time with the need to chase every cent of prize money to keep his place on the tour.

But after missing a PGA Tour card for the 2018 season, the Palmerston North man has the time to play New Zealand’s two biggest tournaments, which are both stops on the Australasian PGA Tour, the New Zealand PGA Championship at the Manawatu¯ Golf Club on February 22-25 and the New Zealand Open in Queenstown on March 1-4. His experience will make him one of the tournaments’ frontrunners.

He has played 159 PGA Tour tournaments and has 166 Web.com tour starts with his career earnings between the two tours sitting at more than NZ$6.6million.

The chance to compete at his home course in the NZ PGA Championship provided a major drawcard for Wilkinson. Manawatu¯ Golf Club general manager Warren Collett said there had been a buzz around the club with news of Wilkinson’s return.

‘‘He is a local boy with a heap of history and a pretty proud record playing out of here,’’ Collett said.

‘‘It is a coup to get these sort of people here. We are pretty excited that he is coming back.’’

While Wilkinson does not have a full PGA Tour card for the 2017-18 season, he is still able to enter some events.

Despite his age, Wilkinson is anything but washed up. Over the past two years he has finished in the top-25 nine times including a best fourthequal at the Byron Nelson Classic in Texas on the PGA Tour in 2016.

He is ranked 465th in the world making him the fourth-ranked Kiwi behind Danny Lee (105), Ryan Fox (120) and Michael Hendry (125). But his ranking has suffered from him being on the toughest golf tour in the world.

This season may have been a down year for Wilkinson, but 2016 was the third best of his career.

He will be hoping to regain that form when he returns home.