Golf: Task clear at Clearwater

The New Zealand PGA championship may not have quite the glamour of the New Zealand Open, but it offers a path to greater fame and fortune.

Next week's tournament at Clearwater, Christchurch, is co-sanctioned by the Australasian and United States Nationwide tours and sponsored by ING. The prize purse, US$600,000 ($840,000), is one of the biggest on the Nationwide tour.

Do well and a player can set himself up for a place in the top 20 money-winners on the Nationwide Tour for the season and an automatic promotion to the lucrative US PGA Tour in 2006.

Last year's winner at Clearwater, Aussie Gavin Coles, did just that.

He won US$139,248 in the NZPGA, earned just US$59,436 during the rest of the season and scraped into the big tour as 20th on the money list.

Two years earlier he had followed a similar path, winning the Jacob's Creek tournament in Adelaide to kickstart his year.

Second-placed Brendan Jones and third-placed Bradley Hughes also progressed to the main tour from last year's NZPGA. The two Aussies finished sixth and 12th on the season's money list.

The 2003 champion from Clearwater, American Ryan Palmer, earned a place on the US PGA tour and held on to his card last season. The 2002 champion, Aussie Peter O'Malley, remains a regular on the European tour and will be at Christchurch again next week.

For the past two years the Nationwide players have begun their season in Panama before heading to Adelaide and Christchurch.

Last year's Panama winner, Jimmy Walker, headed the end-of-year standings. This year's winner, Vance Veazey, a 39-year-old from Tennessee, will be at Christchurch.

Kiwi Steve Alker, who finished 60th on the Nationwide tour last season, had a top-10 finish at both Panama and the New Zealand Open. He will be joined in Christchurch by veteran Grant Waite, who lost his US PGA card last season, and rookie Tim Wilkinson, who gained his Nationwide card at the tour school.

Other Kiwis in the field include David Smail, Gareth Paddison, Eddie Lee, Tony Christie, Brad Heaven and Stuart Thompson.

Former New Zealand representative Enu Chung, who was a late exclusion from the team to play in the Espirito Santo world amateur team championship in Puerto Rico last year, is now a member of the golf team at the University of California at Berkeley.

Ironically, Claire Dury, her replacement in Puerto Rico, also plays for the university team.

Chung was dropped after a loss of form and some confusion over her whereabouts. It was later revealed that she had been studying for a university entrance qualification.

The New Zealand team of Dury, Penny Newbrook and Sarah Nicholson finished ninth in Puerto Rico.

 

Smail plays hometown pro-am

 

Golfer of the year David Smail will repay his hometown supporters by playing in a Waikato pro-am immediately after the NZPGA in Christchurch, to support junior golf in the area.

Along with several other participants at Clearwater, Smail will fly to Hamilton on the Monday morning to tee off at Ngaruawahia in the event, sponsored by Perry Aggregates.

There will be two-tee starts, at 7.30 and 11.30am, at both the Ngaruawahia and Hamilton Golf Clubs to accommodate the big field.