KEY POINTS:
In 1907, when the first New Zealand Open was played, golf hadn't made it to Queenstown. In fact, up till 35 years ago, the country's tourist capital was actually one place to avoid if you were taking a golf holiday. Apart from a little nine-holer next to the airport at Frankton and another parched wee layout among the rocks over at Arrowtown, you couldn't play the game in the Wakatipu Basin.
Only in the early 1970s did the Queenstown Golf Club open its new magnificently scenic course around at Kelvin Heights. But it was the 1992 opening of Millbrook which was the catalyst to the area becoming the country's premier golfing destination. Now Arrowtown is an irrigated country gem, Millbrook is getting a makeover and another nine holes, the Jacks Point resort opens next week and there are plans for yet another course in the wine country of the nearby Gibbston Valley. Then there's Michael Hill's private sanctuary, which opens to the public this week.
The centenary New Zealand Open at The Hills is in many ways the official seal of approval on Queenstown as a place to play and watch golf. In a quarter of century of reporting the game, I've only once known more anticipation about an event in this country, and that was when Tiger played at Paraparaumu five years ago.
The funny thing is, the field for this tournament is, by world standards, very average. The headline act might have been a major championship winner two years ago, but Michael Campbell's not even ranked in the current top 150 in the world. Unfortunately, his plans to lure some marquee names to play this week have come to nothing and once again a combination of distance, no appearance money, relatively little prizemoney and a clash with other events means there are no genuine world beaters here.
But the real star this week should be the golf course itself - and that's no bad thing. Apart from those few lucky people who have played there and some stunning, photographs allied with some brief coverage on TV news bulletins, nobody really knows what The Hills is like. But anticipation is high and the prospect of the tournament celebrating 100 years at such a spectacular venue has, not surprisingly, produced a volume of pre-sales and applications to be volunteers unsurpassed in recent New Zealand Open history.
The brand new course is also set to mould well with the traditions of the centenary. The conference centre at Millbrook, literally over the road from the tournament course, will host an exhibition entitled 1907-2007 The Long Drive to The Hills. The star exhibit will be the set of clubs Bob Charles used to win the British Open in 1963.
Once, when golf was mainly a colonial and American pastime, the New Zealand Open was a significant stop on the international circuit. For many years the winner had direct entry to the British Open. Peter Thomson's nine wins up till 1971 came in the same era as he won the Claret Jug five times.
But in the last 30 years it's always been a battle to make the New Zealand Open stand out from other tournaments on the Australasian, and latterly, European Tour. The size of our economy, the traditional weakness of our currency, plus a lack of world-class courses, mean the scheduling has been pushed all over the calendar, not settling into a regular date and often forced to clash with something huge elsewhere on the globe.
I'm hopeful The Hills, with a generous benefactor in Michael Hill himself, will be the start of a super new era for the New Zealand Open. If the course is as good as it's reputed to be, and the tournament and the tourist town become a fun place for the players to visit, then pulling the big names will be much more possible from now on.
