Golf: NZ Open to boast eight winners of major titles

New Zealand's Lydia Ko. Photo / AP

In a tribute to the organisers' recruitment drive, the McKayson New Zealand women's open field will feature eight golfing major winners.

Until yesterday there were two, with Lydia Ko and Canada's Brooke Henderson signing to play the September 28-October 1 tournament at Auckland's Windross Farm.

The Herald can reveal six others, with 11 major championships between them, will stride the Ardmore fairways.

Taiwan's Yani Tseng, Scotland's Catriona Matthew, American Brittany Lincicome and Koreans Na Yeon Choi, Eun-Hee Ji and Hyo Joo Kim are set to visit.

The sextet have won 70 professional tournaments between them and earned more than $63 million in prize money. Collectively they have amassed 352 top-10 finishes on the LPGA.

"To have golfers who have won so many major championships between them is a testament to the quality of the field," said tournament director Michael Goldstein.

"We are hoping for one or two more.

"It is a level of golf that has never been seen in this country."

Tseng held the No1 world ranking for 109 weeks and was the youngest player of either sex, at 22 years, to win five majors.

She has won the US PGA championship twice, the British Open twice and the ANA Inspiration.

Matthew has the 2010 British Open to her credit, and four wins on the LPGA among 100 top-10 finishes.

"It is one of the few places in the world I've not been," she said.

"People say it is similar to Scotland, so that's something I am keenly interested in.

Kim won the Evian Championship in France three years ago on the back of an LPGA record 61 in her opening round.

Lincicome is a two-time major winner; at the Kraft Nabisco championship in 2009 before it morphed into the ANA Inspiration, which she won in 2015. Choi and Ji won the 2012 and 2009 US Opens respectively.