Golf: Grant Clements Memorial Tournament preview

Luke Brown will be one of the favourites to win the 2018 Grant Clements Memorial Golf Tournament this weekend. Photo / File

One of the iconic events on the golfing calendar tees off at Mount Maunganui links this weekend.

The 2018 Grant Clements Memorial Golf Tournament will be played out on Saturday and Sunday preceded by the NZ Men's Foursomes Championships on Friday.

The Grant Clements Memorial will be held for the 19th time at the Mount Maunganui Golf Club in recognition of the late Grant Clements and his achievements with the club and New Zealand Golf.

After a slow start following New Year, entries for the tournament have reached the limit for the field of 96 players who will play 72 holes of challenging stroke play over the weekend.

There are several changes among the players over the past year with some top amateurs moving to either professional ranks or American scholarships with top performers Ryan Chisnall, Henry Spring, Alanna Campbell and others not available.

The 2018 Grant Clements has a new group of young golfers aspiring to follow in the steps of other previous winners Danny Lee, Ryan Fox, Josh Geary, Luke Toomey and Harry Bateman including players from Japan, Korea, Switzerland and Canada.

There are 19 women entered, with eight on 0 to plus handicaps with two on +4.8 and 5.0 and 77 men entered with 32 of them with handicaps better than scratch.

Players to watch are Luke Brown (The Pines), Scott Manyweathers (+3.1), Matt McLean (+3.5) from Harewood in Canterbury and a rising young star in Kazuma Kabori (+2.7) from Rangiora who played well recently in Australia.

Eight of the 25 New Zealand men who have qualified for the NZ Open final qualifying rounds to be held at Paraparaumu and Cromwell are playing including Joshua Rookes, a former member of the Mount club.

The Grant Clements Golf Tournament forms an integral part of the development pathway for amateur golfers to join the professional ranks.

There are 18 pairs entered for the NZ Men's Foursomes Championships on Friday that involves 36 holes of stroke play to be played on the Mount Maunganui course for the fifth time.

Favoured pairs are Scott Manyweathers and Matt McLean from Harewood (combined handicap +3.3), previous winner Luke Brown from The Pines and Tauranga's George Wardell (+1.8), Dean Gray and Kerry Mountcastle from Masterton (+1.3) plus 2017 winner from Whakatane Ryan Maxwell and Tawera Williams from Omanu (+0.8).

A ladies pairing of Tamura Hitomi and Marina Ito from Riverside have entered (+1.6).