KEY POINTS:
Organisers have moved to dampen expectations about the quality of the field being assembled to contest the New Zealand Open golf championship next month.
Tournament director Bob Tuohy yesterday said he was not "expecting the world" in terms of player entries for the first Open to be staged in the South Island for 22 years.
Concern is rising in some quarters about the depth of the field likely to be appear in the championship at jewellery magnate Michael Hills' private course outside of Queenstown on November 29-December 2.
Tuohy did little to allay those concerns when saying he was still about three weeks away from confirming the lineup for the championship.
"We're still a few weeks away from getting some idea of what we're going to end up with," he said.
"It's a bit like Forrest Gump's chocolate wrapper - you don't know what you're going to get until you open the wrapper."
Much interest centres on the response of European players to approaches to play in the Open.
This year's New Zealand Open will be the third time it has operated under a co-sanctioning status between the European and Australasian tours.
The involvement of the European Tour since 2005 has resulted in the championship purse being boosted to $1.5 million but the previous two editions saw a marked dilution in European player involvement.
Sixty-five spots in the 156-player field are reserved for Europeans. In 2005 they filled 64 of those spots, but last year just 29 made the long trip Down under to compete.
Officials blamed the sharp decline in European involvement on the difficulty players had making rushed travel arrangements after the European qualifying school ran four days over schedule due to appalling weather.
Tuohy said there was no such problem this year, but he played down expectations about both the quantity and quality of European players likely to appear in Queenstown.
"That bogey is out of the way but to be perfectly honest with you I am not expecting the world.
"That's because of the time of year we are playing, the glut of tournaments around the globe and the massive amounts of money these guys play for.
"It's just bloody tough to attract these guys."
Further complicating Tuohy's mission to put together the sort of field which guarantees wider interest in the Open is a direct conflict between it and the final stage of the PGA Tour's qualifying school in the United States.
The qualifying school starts on November 28 and New Zealand players such as Phil Tataurangi and Tim Wilkinson have already told Tuohy that event takes precedence should they reach the final stage.
Tuohy said he had yet to hear from the likes of US-based Grant Waite and Craig Perks.
One high-profile New Zealander confirmed to start and certain to draw a crowd in Queenstown is 2005 US Open champion Michael Campbell.
Campbell last year strongly berated some elements of the media for highlighting the low number of Europeans appearing at the Open.
His argument was the less Europeans the better, because it opened up more opportunities for New Zealanders and Australians.
Other players confirmed for Queenstown are defending champion Nathan Green, of Australia, and his compatriot, left-hander Richard Green.
Nathan Green made US$1.38 million ($1.87 million) on the PGA Tour this year to finish 62nd on the moneylist, while Richard Green came 20th on the European order of merit in 2007 with income of 1.05m euro ($2.03m).
- NZPA
