KEY POINTS:
The stunning early summer weather of the Queenstown Lakes district, the deep blue skies and the spectacular 360 degree mountain views from the golf course are ensuring this first New Zealand Open at The Hills has a distinctly feel-good atmosphere.
But in the interests of constant improvement, here are some suggestions to make it even better for those coming next year and beyond:
* Don't charge for car parking. Most golf tournaments everywhere in the world, especially the majors, offer free parking to speed up the public access to the grounds. At The Hills, long queues formed along the only road leading to the course, as drivers had to find $8 to pay for their car park, even if they'd already bought tickets to watch play. To make matters worse, attendants were selling tournament tickets through the car window and processing the transaction by credit card, while those in the queue behind, already with tickets and a parking pass, became increasingly frustrated at the delay. If the tournament needs money from parking fees, put an extra $5 on the price of admission. Most punters won't notice the difference between $25 and $30 for a day at the golf.
Make the day's draw freely available to spectators. To charge $2 for a daily pairing sheet and course map only enhances the southern reputation for stinginess. At most tournaments the daily draw is provided free to spectators as they come in the gate.
* Put more rubbish containers on the course and in more prominent places. A pristine environment such as this can do without food wrappers and plastic drink bottles being dropped on the grass.
Have more, and more prominent, concession stands selling drinks, food, sun cream and lip balm on the course. Not only has it been hot over the last two days, the dry mountain air sucks the moisture out of your skin. The southern man can hack the rugged look. We metrosexuals from Auckland need to moisturise in this environment. The food and drink outlets are poorly signposted and a long way from the play.
* Find a way for spectators to follow more of the action on the 17th hole. It's The Hills signature, the one featuring in most of the publicity shots. But after watching players hit their second shot up the rocky canyon, the public have to walk behind a hill around to the green, losing sight of the play completely. By the time they get up to the green, the players have often putted out.
Have a scoreboard with every group on the final two days. It's frustrating for the gallery gathered behind a hole to watch the action for a while and have numerous groups early in the day's draw come through with no indication of how they're scoring.
* More leaderboards are needed on course. Information is king, and there isn't enough at this tournament.
Get the telephone companies to improve the cell-phone coverage. If Queenstown is the epicentre of the country's tourism industry, then surely it needs 3G mobile technology. Then the reporters filing by email will get home before the pub shuts.
* Kindly suggest to the local hospitality trade to stop price gouging. The New Orleans Hotel in Arrowtown features a "New Zealand Open" menu which includes "Beer Battered Blue Cod, french fries and salad" - what we used to call fish and chips - for a mere $25.50. There's a touch of Augusta about that.
Apart from that, we're all having a great time!
