NZ Open: Kazuma Kobori gunning for DP World Tour spot with win at Millbrook

Fresh off three wins on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia, 22-year-old Kazuma Kobori couldn’t be in better form.

With the next stop being Millbrook and the 103rd New Zealand Open, the Karuizawa-born, Rangiora High School-educated golfer said: “It’d definitely be No 1, for sure. It’d be the biggest tournament I’d have won but there are a lot of good players so you never know what’s going to happen.

“It’d be a dream come true. It’d be a tournament that I’ve remembered for a while as a junior. As well as for the Merit, it’d be massive because it would lock the No 1 spot up as well.”

That spot is No 1 the Golf Australia Order of Merit, which tracks professional golfers across the ditch and is also used for various event exemption categories.

The exemption Kobori is gunning for is a spot on the DP World Tour, which would present a remarkable rise for the young star, who turned professional only in October last year.

“For next year you have to finish top three in the Australian Order of Merit. I’m not a mathematician, so I’m not sure but I think I’ve got the third spot locked up unless something crazy happens. Right now, I’m trying to get to that No 1 spot.”

Kazuma Kobori at last year's 102nd New Zealand Open. Photo / Photosport

Kobori finished in a tie for sixth at the 102nd edition of the tournament but says he has no expectations as to where he’ll finish this year.

“I’m not really expecting anything, to be honest. I’m just hoping to give it my best shot and see how it goes because, at the end of the day, you can prepare well and then not perform so these are things that could happen, may happen but we’ll never know until the real deal happens.”

Millbrook Resort can be a testing course, with little room for error, and Kobori says the margins are fine even for some of the best golfers in the world.

“Millbrook’s a pretty tough track, or it can be, so we’ll see how it goes.

“Putting helps pretty much everywhere in the world regardless of where you’re playing ... I think it’s going to require a bit more discipline ... There’s certain places where if you miss it I don’t care if you have the best short game in the world – you’re not getting up and down.”

After fighting off leukaemia, Kiwi golfer Michael Hendry will be in this year’s New Zealand Open field and is someone Kobori admires.

“It is very cool, actually. I played with Mike at the Vic Open a few weeks back. [He’s] someone that I really look up to and have a lot of respect for, especially with what he has gone through and to still be playing the game at a very high level, so it’s incredible to see and I look forward to seeing him down there.”