KEY POINTS:
If the wind blows at Gulf Harbour this week, the hole that may sort out the field is the 593m 17th.
Several players in the lead-up to the tournament faced the wind head-on on this par-five and struggled to reach the safety of the fairway with their drives. The back tee is on a cliff top and the drive is uphill over a couple of pohutukawas to a narrow fairway.
Former Open winner Michael Long yesterday suggested the course would suit long hitters and he singled out the 17th as one that would test all.
"Yesterday I played in what I was told was just a decent breeze and that was tough enough. It's not unplayable like that but you're going to walk off after 72 holes needing a couple of weeks to recover," he said.
"It's really quite a tough course. I didn't play last year when it was firm and played a lot shorter. A lot of times when you're in the rough you're hitting up the hill or down the hill and that's tough, an eight iron becomes a seven iron or a seven iron becomes a six iron.
"Number 17! Even today I'm still trying to get it right. I'm not making that fairway by much.
"You're so far back. I think for the first two rounds they'll move us up to the front tee just so we can all get finished there. But I think for the weekend they'll definitely move us back."
In balmy conditions last year players savaged the par of 72, with winner Niclas Fasth recording a 72-hole total of 266, 22 under. Since then the par has been cut to 71 with the 452m sixth hole becoming a par four. The rough has also been lengthened.
Long's quip about players needing a holiday will become reality for the 38-year-old New Zealander. He's having a break until Clearwater at Christchurch in February.
He has had a solid year on the second-level Nationwide tour in the United States, but disappointingly missed by one shot the chance to regain his main tour card in the USPGA tour school.
"You can look at it as a glass half empty or half full. For the first time in 10 years I'm going to have eight weeks in one spot."
But first he would dearly love to add a second NZ Open to the title he won at Paraparaumu in 1996.
"It's still my greatest moment in golf. You'd love to win it again. I'm just proud I won it once."
