This weekend sees all three NZ PGA Tour members in action in
Florida, Ryan Fox in South Africa trying to build on the Black Caps’ success
yesterday and Lydia Ko in Thailand on the LPGA Tour.
The PGA Tour of Australasia has a week off before the two
big New Zealand tournaments, but on the home front here we have the Brian Perry
Classic Pro-Am at the Hamilton golf club tomorrow, which sees 30 top NZ
professionals battling it out for $20,000 in this invitation only event.
European Tour
Ryan Fox tees it up later today in the Joburg Open, being
played on the East Course at the Royal Johannesburg & Kensington Country
Club. On paper the course is a 7,000
metre monster, including two back to back Ryan Fox tees it up later today in
the Joburg Open, being played on the East Course at the Royal 460 metre par
fours. However, the altitude (1,750
metres) will see it playing at a sea level equivalent of about 6,300
metres. It won’t bother Ryan either way,
and hopefully he can continue to build on his excellent start to his rookie
year on the European Tour.
PGA Tour
The players will be looking forward to warmer weather, as
the Tour moves to the Florida coast for the Honda Classic at the PGA National
Course in Palm Beach Gardens. There’s
plenty to play for all three New Zealanders, with Danny Lee yet to get going
this season, and Steven Alker and Tim Wilkinson needing good results before the
restricted events coming up in the Tour schedule.
The PGA National Championship course features the infamous
“Bear Trap” – the 15th, 16th and 17th. The 16th is a dog leg par 4 of 390
metres, with an intimidating tee shot which often forces players to bail out
left. However, that then leaves a 2nd
shot of around 200 metres over the water and usually into the wind. The other two are par 3s, again over water
with no safe options. Just for good
measure, there’s a statue of a bear on each tee box to remind players where
they are……
LPGA Tour
It must be Honda Golf Sponsorship Week, because the LPGA is
in Thailand this week for the Honda LPGA Thailand tournament. The Jutanugarn sisters will be expected to do
well in this, also the highly ranked Pornanong Phatlum, who is in the same
Round 1 group as Lydia Ko and In Gee Chun.
This will be another stern test of where Lydia is with all
her recent changes. Coverage is on SS 55
from midday today.
Brian Perry Classic
Pro-Am
With only 30 invitation spots for professionals, and $20,000
in prizemoney for this one round Pro-Am, this is always a keenly contested day
and a high quality field will again fight it out tomorrow at the Hamilton Golf
Club’s St Andrews course.
Players include home town hero David Smail, Mark Brown, 2016
Mondiale NZ PGA OOM winner Kieran Muir, Daniel Pearce, Brad Shilton and 2016
Australian Senior PGA Champion Martin Pettigrew. Results will be available on www.pga.org.nz tomorrow evening.