Golf: Bumper crop sign for NZ Open

Organisers rate the 156-strong field for the 87th New Zealand Open next week as the best in memory.

Entries for the Open, to be held at the Grange from January 15 to 18, closed yesterday.

"Weve got a record number of entries. It's the deepest field we've hosted and therefore probably the best Open field," tournament director Phil Aickin said yesterday.

Eight players competed on the US PGA Tour last year, 10 on the Japan Tour and seven on the European Tour.

"They are the big three tours in the world ... to have players of that level is outstanding," Aickin said.

Also competing are 44 of the top 60 players in the 2003 Australasian Order of Merit, and a number of young players who gained their tour card in last week's final qualifying school in Australia.

"At the top end we have three players who have won majors - Sir Bob Charles, Dave Stockton and Wayne Grady - nine former NZ Open champions and a number who have won the Australian Open."

Charles won the 1963 British Open and Stockton is a two-time winner of the US PGA, which Grady also won in 1990.

"There are about 65 million golfers in the world and we have 65 players ranked in the top 800. That says something about the overall depth," Aickin said.

Some of the other key players to enter include Australians Paul Sheehan, Craig Spence and Brendan Jones.

Spence was the 1999 Australian Masters champion. He has played on the US PGA and Nationwide Tours and recently gained his European Tour card for this year.

Sheehan, the former Australian amateur representative, moved to the Japan Tour with two runners-up efforts on his way to 20th on the Order of Merit, collecting $635,000.

Jones has completed another outstanding season on the Japan Tour with victory in the Sun Chlorella Classic and two runners-up finishes. He was sixth on the Order of Merit, earning $1.1 million last year.

"That group of players is typical of the quality and depth in this field," Aickin said. "The Open will be incredibly exciting and very competitive."

Aickin said he expects Michael Campbell to play. The 2000 New Zealand Open champion is recovering from an operation on his legs, but told organisers he was confident of playing.

Grant Waite, the 1992 Open champion, is an unlikely starter as he is in line for a start in the US PGA Tour event in Hawaii the same week.

"If he gets bumped out, he will fly down to play," Aickin said.

"Either way we are very happy for him and we know he will continue to support the Open in years to come."