Golf: Mount profits from fresh format

International Brad Kendall has backed New Zealand's Golf's major overhaul of its blue riband amateur events - not least because next year's split format gives the former strokeplay champion a clear shot at adding to his haul at two courses he knows well.
From next year the national amateur championship will be contested separately from the 72-hole strokeplay event, which for the past 47 years has been used as the qualifying phase of the championship. The championship was a purely matchplay contest from the time it was first contested in 1893 until 1963.
Now, the strokeplay and matchplay events will be held as strictly separate, stand alone tournaments, with the amateur championship title awarded to the winner of the latter.
Kendall's Mt Maunganui Golf Club will host the matchplay phase from April 18-22 featuring 36 holes of qualifying and three days of matchplay.
As well, the national foursomes titles, previously contested the day before the first round of strokeplay, will also be held in their own right at different venues and times. Mt Maunganui will again be used for the national men's foursomes championship.
NZG national tournament manager Dave Mangan said the key driver behind the change was to shorten the length of the championship, which ran to eight days when staged in Christchurch in April this year.
Kendall not surprisingly agreed, saying when he won the strokeplay at Hastings' Bridge Pa 13 months ago he didn't have much left in the tank for matchplay, despite making it all the way to the final before losing to Aussie Matt Jager.
"I was stuffed by the end of it, probably even stuffed after a round of foursomes and four rounds of strokeplay before that. A week's a hell of a lot of time to be playing."
Mangan said it was hoped the strokeplay title winner would attain greater kudos in future.
Previously, the strokeplay event was very much overshadowed by the matchplay competition which followed. "With the New Zealand strokeplay now being a stand alone event, it will grow to become a very prestigious title," he said.
The changes will also allow both the men and women's events to be played alongside each other, which was successful at Russley in April.
Next year's 72-hole strokeplay championship, for men and women, will be played at Hastings on March 29 to April 1 followed by the amateur championship at Mt Maunganui three weeks later.
The men's foursomes will also be held in Mt Maunganui on the Friday before the annual Grant Clements memorial, and the women's foursomes likewise on the Friday before the Ruth Middleton trophy at Matamata.
"We are glad that Mt Maunganui and Matamata golf clubs have put their hand up to be the permanent hosts of the New Zealand foursomes," Mangan said. "There is a lot of tradition in those events and we recognised that the Grant Clements Memorial and Ruth Middleton are two of the most popular district events, which will become more desirable for the leading amateurs to play in now that they can compete for a prestigious national title beforehand."
Bay of Plenty features strongly on the national amateur calendar leading up to next year's two tournaments, with Tauranga hosting the national secondary schools final on August 22 and Omanu and Omokoroa the women's and men's under-19 championships from August 24-26. Whakatane host the women's interprovincial from December 6-10.
Bay of Plenty Golf chief executive Chris McAlpine also backed the new format. "I can see sense in what they're doing - when Brad played in the matchplay final last year there was hardly anyone there because players go home once they're knocked out."
New dates for New Zealand Golf events
NZ strokeplay: Hastings, March 29-April 1
NZ amateur: Mt Maunganui, April 18-22
NZ men's foursomes, Mt Maunganui
NZ women's foursomes, Matamata