KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand Open golf championship will be held from March 12-15 next year at the The Hills in Arrowtown near Queenstown under a co-sanction agreement with the Australasian Tour and the United States' Nationwide Tour.
The championship will form part of three tournaments in Australasia co-sanctioned with the Nationwide Tour.
It will complete the Australasian swing following the Moonah Classic near Melbourne from February 26-March 1 and the NZPGA Championship at Clearwater, Christchurch from March 5-8.
The New Zealand events will carry a prize purse of more than $1 million.
The co-sanction arrangement with the Nationwide Tour is in place for two years with an option of a further two years. It replaces the co-sanction agreement with the European Tour which has been in place for the past three years.
"This gives us real certainty for our flagship championship which means we can put plans in place going forward with real certainty," NZ Golf chief executive Bill MacGowan said today.
" March is a great time of year and usually brings settled weather which is another advantage.
"We have a number of New Zealand and Australian players on the Nationwide Tour and success at the Open offers an exciting career pathway for a young player to realise his dreams."
MacGowan said NZ Golf was only offered one further year with the European Tour co-sanction arrangement and no guarantees after that, which led to the discussions with other tours.
"These are challenging economic times.
" It has been a long process but we remain committed to, and excited about the future of our championship which has been such an important part of the golfing heritage in this country for more than 100 years."
The Nationwide Tour said they were delighted to add a national championship such as the New Zealand Open to their schedule and retain the three-tournament tour to Australasia.
"The Nationwide Tour has been coming to Australia and New Zealand since 2004 and they are popular stops for the tour and our players," tour president Bill Calfee said.
Tournament host Michael Hill said his team were now keen to build on the success of last year when his course hosted the tournament for the first time, attracting 35,000 spectators.
- NZPA
