Golf: 'Good sense' dictates NZ Open new Nov date

The New Zealand Open, the country's premier golf tournament, is moving dates to better align itself with the major tournaments across the Tasman.

Next year's Open, now co-sanctioned with the Australasian and European Tours, will shift from its January time slot to November.

This will allow the New Zealand event to slot in with three of Australia's biggest tournaments, the Australian Open, Australian PGA and the Australian Masters.

New Zealand Golf said the move made good sense. The new date, on the drawing board for 2007, was brought forward after the demise of the Heineken Classic in Australia.

"This left the New Zealand Open somewhat isolated," said NZ Golf chief executive Larry Graham.

"We had some concerns with our January date because of the difficulty in guaranteeing availability of our leading players. With the Heineken event gone we were left on our own.

"It would have been difficult for the European players to come to New Zealand and then travel back to the Middle East followed by the Johnnie Walker in Perth."

Australasian PGA Tour chiefs believe that the addition of a co-sanctioned event into the prime November-December period will help the marketability of all three events at a time when tournament golf in Australia is in full swing.

The global environment in which the Australasian Tour now operates presents both wonderful opportunities and new challenges, said tour CEO Andrew Georgiou.

"Recent developments both domestically and internationally point clearly to the reality that the long-term success of the New Zealand Open is far more secure in a November-December date.

"The move of the European Tour events in the Middle East into January and February and the increasing concentration of Australasian players on the US Tour between them make compelling reasons for this change.

"The Australasian Tour is sure the new timeframes will ensure the strongest possible fields and therefore the greatest public interest," Georgiou said.

The date will be decided soon and be tied to the swing of European Tour events in Asia, ensuring that the event is held when European Tour players are in the region and able to commit to travelling to New Zealand.