KEY POINTS:
The quality of bowling to be seen on several Auckland greens in the next nine days can be gauged from the many star players who from today compete in qualifying rounds to make the final fields for the New Zealand Open, starting at Henderson on Monday.
Those seeking to make the cut for singles, pairs and triples events which carry total prizemoney of $30,000 include many former national champions and national representatives, as well as many centre champions.
And while the bulk of the entries are from northern region centres, some have travelled from the South Island, Dunedin's Shaun Scott as one example.
Among the men trying to qualify for all or one or other of the events are legends like Rowan Brassey and Ivan Kostanich and former national champions like Jamie Hill, Petar Sain, Dwayne Cameron and Tony Grantham.
The women's qualifiers are topped by the great Australian Karen Murphy and many former national champions and representatives in Sharon Sims, Wendy Jensen, Marina Khan, Patsy Jorgensen and Jo Babich.
Automatic entries for each of the three disciplines have been reserved for New Zealand and Australian squad members, several of them gold medallists from the world championships this year, plus winners of a range of Auckland centre events, including secondary school champions Greg Ruaporo and Ciaran McElvanna in the men's pairs.
Gary Lawson, Andrew Todd, who won the singles in last year's inaugural event, Ali Forsyth, Richard Girvan and Shannon McIlroy are seeded New Zealand men and in the women's are Val Smith, Jo Edwards, Mary Campbell, Genevieve Baildon and Clare McCaul.
The Australian seeds are Mark Jacobsen, Mark Berghofer and Mark Jacobsen (men) and Julie Keegan, Sharyn Renshaw, Lynsey Armitage and Claire Duke (women).
The six finals are scheduled for Henderson next Thursday and Friday.
