Golf: Open field full of champions

By IAN HEPENSTALL

No less than nine former champions who have won the title 12 times will take part in the New Zealand Open championship at Middlemore next week.

Of the 156 places in the field, 131 have been named, with the last 25 spots to be decided at the final qualifying tournament at The Grange in Auckland on Monday.

Thirty players won through from three pre-qualifying tournaments this week to join approximately 30 other players chasing the last 25 places.

It will be a case of Spot The Former Champion when the Holden-sponsored open starts on Thursday. Those returning include New Zealanders David Smail (2001 winner), Michael Campbell (2000), Matthew Lane (1998), Michael Long (1996), Grant Waite (1992) and Sir Bob Charles (1954, 1966, 1970, 1973).

Australians who will tee off with the open title to their name are Lucas Parsons (1995), Craig Jones (1994) and Peter Fowler (1993).

The field contains two players who have won majors - Charles, who won the 1963 British Open and Australian Wayne Grady, the 1990 US PGA champion.

Tournament director Phil Aickin believes it is the best lineup of New Zealand talent since the open was last played at Middlemore in 1997.

"Seventeen of the top 20 ranked New Zealand players on world rankings will be playing, which is tremendous," Aickin said.

"We are thrilled that so many New Zealand players come back to support this event."

The last of them to arrive is Taupo-based Phil Tataurangi, who is contesting the Mercedes Championship in Hawaii this week, the opening tournament of the US PGA Tour.

Tataurangi qualified for the Mercedes after his breakthrough victory on the US PGA Tour last year in the Invensys Classic.

Australasian Rookie of the Year, Gareth Paddison from Wellington gained his maiden win as a professional at the City of Dunedin Classic while Christchurch 18-year-old Eddie Lee appears after his remarkable victory as an amateur in the MaeKyung Open in Korea last year, part of the Asian PGA Tour.

Other big name New Zealanders returning include Auckland's Frank Nobilo and Grant Waite, back after missing an automatic place on the US PGA Tour for this year.

Nobilo, plagued with a back ailment for the past two years, has never won the open, finishing runner-up twice. His injury is keeping him from full-time golf and he will not know until March whether he has a future in the game.

Nobilo finished two shots adrift of Australian Rodger Davis at Paraparaumu in 1991 and by one shot to another Australian, Jones in 1994.

Waite, with career earnings in excess of US$4 million ($11.2 million), is another New Zealander to win on the US circuit, winning the 1993 Kemper Open.

"New Zealand golf has always competed well above our fighting weight for such a small country,"Aickin said. "Last year was possibly our best year yet with so many players successful. We have three New Zealand players at the open in the world's top 100, which is fantastic."

They are led by Campbell, ranked No 19, with Tataurangi 75th and Smail 81st.

Two of New Zealand team which finished fifth at the Eisenhower Trophy world amateur team's championship in October, Lee and Tim Wilkinson, will be there, both making their debuts as professionals on home soil. The other member of the team, Waikato's Brad Shilton, is one of two amateurs given automatic spots, joining Toledo University-based Brad Heaven of Auckland.

The Australian challenge will be led by three-time Tour winner Andrew Stoltz, 1999 Players' Champion Brett Rumford and London-based Wayne Riley, who has six Tour wins to his name, including the Australian Open and the 1990 Air NZ Shell Open.

The young charge from across the Tasman is likely to be led by the brilliant Scott Gardiner, who finished 12th on the Order of Merit in his debut season in 2001.

New professionals include two Eisenhower representatives, Adam Groom, fifth overall at the open in Paraparaumu last year, and Marcus Fraser, the New Zealand amateur champion on Middlemore last year and leading Eisenhower individual.