Off the tee: North Island tune-up for Italy

Top New Zealand amateurs Bradley Iles and Mathew Holten will test their form in the North Island strokeplay championship at Hamilton today before heading for the Bonallack Trophy in Italy.

The two Kiwis will join players from Australia, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Malaysia and Pakistan in the 12-man Asia-Pacific team who will take on the Europeans in the biennial match.

The Bonallack Trophy has been contested since 1998 and Europe won the first two contests. In 2002 the Asia-Pacific, including Kiwis Tim Wilkinson and Eddie Lee, won the trophy for the first time.

The event clashes with the New Zealand amateur championships in Taupo so Iles and Holten will miss the championships, as will defending matchplay champion, Aussie James Nitties, who will also be in Rome.

Iles will be defending his North Island title over 72 holes at the Hamilton Golf Club from today until Sunday. He won the title by four shots last year at Poverty Bay.

The Wellington golfer was also the defending champion at the South Island strokeplay in Invercargill last month. That title was won by Wanganui's Riki Kauika.

But Iles was in his best form to win the Australian strokeplay title in Adelaide from a very strong field.

Most of New Zealand's top men are playing at Hamilton this weekend, including Kauika and Rotorua's Mark Smith, a former North Island champion, who beat Iles in the first round of the Australian matchplay.

Among the older players will be Terry Cochrane, a former holder of the North and South Island titles, and Hamiltonian Andrew McKechnie, who missed by one shot from qualifying for the lucrative European seniors professional tour.

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Australian Lester Peterson, who won the New Zealand amateur matchplay title when it was last staged in Taupo in 1989, has entered this year's championship, which starts on April 18.

Peterson beat young Christchurch golfer Tony Christie in the final. Christie had won the strokeplay title. Peterson also won the foursomes title with fellow Australian Paul Maloney.

A commercial pilot from New South Wales, Peterson played in Australian teams with Robert Allenby and Stuart Appleby, who went on to successful careers as professionals.

The Australians hold the two major titles at the moment. Last year at Chisholm Park, Dunedin, Kurt Barnes won the strokeplay by four shots from fellow countryman Richard Moir and James Nitties beat Hamish Robertson (Manawatu) in the matchplay final.

Nitties will be at the Bonallack Trophy and Andrew Martin, recent winner of the Australian matchplay championship, has pulled out with injury, but there will be at least six Australians in the field at Taupo.