KEY POINTS:
The first professional women's golf tournament in New Zealand for more than three decades is set to go ahead without New Zealand No 1, Lynn Brooky.
She is to remain in Europe with her new partner during the southern summer, ruling her out of a series of Australasian events.
They include the Women's New Zealand Open, provisionally pencilled in for January 30 to February 1 on the Australian Ladies' Professional Golf calendar.
Her manager, Gail Allport, yesterday confirmed that Brooky will miss the New Zealand tournament, and so deprive organisers of a major drawcard.
Brooky, 40, a four-time winner on the Ladies European Tour (LET), has been this country's leading female player since Marnie McGuire retired in 2004.
The reasons for her staying in Europe owe much to a significant change in her private life. She has entered a relationship with Englishman Ian Godleman, who began coaching her in late 2006.
She intends staying at their Swiss base near Geneva for the Northern Hemisphere winter, working on her game and assisting Godleman at his coaching academies in Portugal and Mauritius.
"Lynn has decided to stay in Europe. She wants to have a white Christmas," Allport said.
"She and Ian are also looking to conduct a coaching school in Portugal in January-February."
Allport said both she and Brooky were in the dark regarding the New Zealand tournament, having been told absolutely nothing by New Zealand Golf, which is overseeing its launch.
That lack of communication annoyed Allport. "I think it is a little bit poor because she is our No 1 women's golfer. I think it was in poor taste that they have not consulted Lynn.
"We are still waiting for them to sound us out. I actually rang them a few months back and all I was told was that it was still a 50-50 proposition."
Allport said the fact the tournament was not sanctioned by LET, coupled with a modest purse of A$150,000 ($184,000), meant it was unlikely to attract much support from European players.
The last professional women's tournament held in New Zealand was the Benson & Hedges Ladies Classic, won by Australian Jane Lock in Auckland in 1975.
Brooky's decision to skip the Australasian circuit for the first time since she turned pro in 1995 leaves Sarah Nicholson and Elizabeth McKinnon, both also based in Europe, as the best local prospects for the Women's NZ Open.
- NZPA
