KEY POINTS:
Auckland teenager Larissa Eruera is not only one of the youngest golfers to hold a women's national title, she is also going to have one of the longest reigns as champion.
At Taupo in December, when she was 14, the St Cuthbert's College pupil won the national matchplay title.
She was due to defend it at Whitford Park at the end of this year but the tournament has been postponed until next year in a major revamp of amateur tournament golf.
New Zealand Golf has decided to run both the men's and women's strokeplay and matchplay championships from April 22-29 at the Paraparaumu Beach and Waikanae courses on the Kapiti Coast.
Two days later at Royal Wellington, senior and junior teams of men and women will contest the transtasman team event against Australia.
The chief executive of NZ Golf, Bill McGowan, said running the premier men's and women's events in the same area at the same time would generate more news coverage and provide a better experience for the players.
The women will play four rounds of strokeplay at Waikanae while the men play Paraparaumu. Both will use Paraparaumu for matchplay. The tournaments will run from Tuesday to Tuesday so that club members lose only one weekend's play.
Other highlights next year:
* The North Island strokeplay at Whakatane on March 20-23 and the South Island strokeplay at Oreti Sands on March 27-30 will have fields of 144 with up to 30 places reserved for women.
* An under-23 championship for women will be staged at New Plymouth from January 23-25.
* Auckland will host both national seniors' championships, the men at Akarana from February 15-17 and the women at Whitford Park from February 20-22.
Meanwhile, Auckland women golfers have a new format for their championships at Manukau this week, with strokeplay qualifying on Friday and matchplay on Saturday and Sunday.
