Golf: Strokeplay will decide Eisenhower team berths

The path to making New Zealand's team for October's Eisenhower Trophy golf world amateur teams championship in Puerto Rico has been finalised.

Four 72-hole strokeplay tournaments in the New Zealand winter will hold the key for players bidding to make the three-man team for tournament.

Players will go head-to-head in the Waikato Winter (Lochiel, July 24-25), Bay of Plenty (Whakatane, July 31-August 1), Auckland (Titirangi, August 28-29) and Waikato (Hamilton, September 4-5) strokeplay tournaments, while 10 to 12 probable players will also be invited to play a medal selection trial under the eye of national selectors in August.

"It's a chance to compare them all on equal footing," New Zealand Golf high performance manager Graeme Scott said.

The eight-man 2003/04 Eisenhower preparation squad of Bradley Iles, Mathew Holten, Kevin Chun, Doug Holloway, Riki Kauika, Mark Purser, Mark Smith and Jae An have the inside running on selection but the open tournaments will allow well-performed players such as Waikato's Brad Shilton to promote their cases.

The trial will be played on a course as similar as possible to Puerto Rico's Westin Ria Mar Beach Resort & Golf Club in Rio Grande, where the October 28-31 championships will be staged.

NZ Golf operations manager Phil Aicken is heading there in July and will bring back video footage of the course to help in preparations and selection of the trial venue.

Scott said NZ Golf was planning to advise the successful players of their selection in the team following the Waikato Strokeplay in Hamilton.

Meanwhile, a final decision on a high performance mentor to accompany the team to Puerto Rico is near.

NZ Golf hopes to have the position filled before the preparation events which start next month.

Scott confirmed his organisation was close to identifying a performance rather than golf-specific mentor to attend the trophy event.

In the past former national coach Mal Tongue was part of the team, along with a manager, but the administration was now more interested in having a strategist present, he said.

"All players are working with their individual coaches. We're not looking for someone who will change their swings, more how to play the course."

The successful appointee would still need to have some golf coaching skills and work on getting the best out of the players while the manager's role would be off course, Scott said.

- DAILY POST (ROTORUA)