Top amateur golfer Caroline Bon is looking forward to telling her grandchildren about playing in the first New Zealand Women's Golf Open.
The Whangarei 21-year-old was thrilled to be invited to attend the inaugural women's professional event at the Clearwater Resort in Christchurch, starting on January 30.
"It's so exciting to get
to play in an event of this calibre without having to leave the country to do it and I'm so excited they've done it when I'm ready for it," she said.
Bon has made giant strides in the last two years to become one of the country's top amateur players, and said the timing of the event couldn't be better.
"It just means that all the practise I've been doing over the last few weeks over Christmas and New Year has been worth it," she said.
"I was very excited when I got the invite. I wasn't too sure but I'd half expected to get one, but it's very exciting for me to go, and it's definitely a big thing for women's golf here.
"Everyone's talking about it." Bon was practising for the national under-23 strokeplay championships at the Pakuranga Golf Club starting on Wednesday, but now the Auckland event will become more of a training event for the big tournament at Clearwater.
The Women's Open has already lured former world number one Laura Davies, current European number one Gwladys Nocera and LPGA winner Katherine Hull to compete in a field that will be finalised next week.
Bon is just one of 13 of the country's leading amateurs invited to the 54-hole championship.
The Northland No1 said it would be a formidable challenge playing against some of the world's top players, but thanks to New Zealand Golf they would get a chance to acquaint themselves with the course.
NZG will hold a four-day camp ahead of the tournament to prepare the amateurs for the challenge.
"We get to go down to Clearwater as one of New Zealand (high performance) squad - so most OF the amateurs will be staying together and we'll have our coaches and psychologists staying with us so that makes it less daunting because there's going to be a few of us in the same boat," Bon said.
Making the cut ahead of some of the professionals will be Bon's aim at the open - to give the yarn to the grandchildren a bit of ammunition.
"It's a really long course which suits my game, so much better than playing a short course," she said.
"It's all about getting confident and attacking the greens - so making the cut is definitely my aim."
