KEY POINTS:
Phil Tataurangi will revisit Shirley for the first time in 15 years when he contests the $40,000 Charles Tour Shirley Open at the Christchurch Golf Club from tomorrow to Monday.
The inaugural Shirley event is the final tournament on the Charles Tour which brings together professionals and leading amateurs, male and female, in a series of four-day events on first-class courses.
After limited starts and meagre returns on the United States PGA Tour this year, Tataurangi is looking for playing opportunities before heading to California in the middle of next month for the second stage of the arduous US PGA Qualifying School.
"I didn't know this event was on until just before entries closed," Tataurangi said. "I recall playing a pro-am here in 1993 before heading to the United States Q School. I'm looking forward to playing and I'm not down here to make up numbers," the Taupo-based professional said.
"I've had a very lean year with my scoring. Yet I think I've made a lot of progress - it just hasn't shown."
Tataurangi believed the Charles Tour concept was excellent.
"It provides playing opportunities for those who really need it and they're played over four rounds and over four days on very good courses."
Although Tauranga professional Josh Geary and Hawkes Bay professional Doug Holloway, winner of the Wairakei Open for a third successive year, are absent, the tournament has attracted a high-calibre field of professionals and amateurs.
Foremost are New Plymouth professional Grant Moorhead, who is comfortably leading the New Zealand PGA's order of merit, and stocky Wairakei amateur, Troy Ropiha, a five-shot winner of the Charles Tour Taranaki Open at Ngamotu earlier this month.
Moorhead finished fourth in the Wairakei Open and the former New Zealand Eisenhower amateur representative was tied for 11th in the Taranaki tournament earlier this month.
Ropiha, third behind Holloway and Geary at Wairakei, fired a 10-under 278 in challenging conditions to win the Taranaki Open. He said he had learned valuable lessons from the Wairakei Open, where he led into the final round before fading to third after a 74.
Ropiha, 26, is second to Geary on the Charles Tour order of merit and has the chance to win the inaugural tour.
Moorhead (fourth), former Canterbury No 1 amateur Andrew Searle (fifth), Nelson professional Dominic Barson (sixth) and Wellington amateur Andrew Green (seventh) are also in the Shirley field.
Consistent Christchurch professional, Tony Christie, Hamilton's Mark Purser and New Zealand club professional champion Garth Domigan (Wanaka) are lining up alongside some of the country's leading amateurs.
They include national match-play champion Thomas Spearman-Burn (Miramar) and his talented brother Peter and Auckland stroke-play champion Ryan Fox.
The amateur field is enhanced by the presence of four visiting Victorians led by 20-year-old Kieran Pratt, runner-up in the 2007 Victorian amateur and second in this year's prestigious Riversdale Cup international event.
The women's entry is led by Canterbury's national champion, Dana Kim, recently returned from representing New Zealand at the world Espirito Santo tournament, and Wellington No 1 Lucy Davis.
- NZPA
