Golf: New champs but where are top players

New Zealand Golf's new-look amateur matchplay championships this week at Mount Maunganui have been shorn of the country's leading players because it clashes with international fixtures on two different continents.

Lydia Ko, the world's No 1-ranked female amateur, national strokeplay champion Emily Perry and Waikato's Chantelle Cassidy are away with the New Zealand team at the Queen Sirikit Cup in Singapore starting in a week.

Reigning New Zealand men's matchplay champion Mathew Perry (Waikato) and Melbourne-based Ben Campbell are also notable no-shows this week in Bay of Plenty, with the pair in Portugal playing for Asia/Pacific in the Bonallack Trophy competition against Europe's leading amateurs.

Fourteen-year-old Ko in particular would have been a massive drawcard at the Mount, with the defending matchplay champion attracting a 500-strong gallery when she teed it up at the recent New Zealand women's Open at Pegasus.

Dave Mangan, New Zealand Golf's national tournaments manager, said all three females were initially locked in to play at Mount Maunganui when the dates were set last year.

"The Queen Sirikit was originally two weeks earlier than has panned out, which was ideal for us in having all of our leading players available, but the change unfortunately means Lydia doesn't get to defend her title (won last year at Russley), although you'd say a 54-hole strokeplay event is better for all three girls anyway, not to mention the international exposure and development they're getting.

"With Mat and Ben the clash with the Bonallack has happened a lot of years - I seem to recall it happening with Josh Geary (and Mark Purser) a few years back."

NZ Golf has, for the first time, overhauled its blue riband amateur events, with the national amateur championship contested separately from the 72-hole strokeplay event, which for 47 years had 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.

Mount Maunganui Golf Club host the matchplay phase this week featuring 36 holes of off-the-stick qualifying on Wednesday and Thursday, with the top 32 through to three days of matchplay culminating in Sunday's 36-hole finals.

Hastings' Bridge Pa hosted the 72-hole strokeplay championship two weeks ago.

Mangan said as well as taking pressure off the host clubs the change had added a lot more prestige to both tournaments.

"Certainly the strokeplay a few weeks back was a lot more prestigious. It was the biggest win of Emily's career and she got recognition for that, got to celebrate that and didn't go out and get beaten the next morning in round one of matchplay like we've seen so often in the past.

"It was fantastic having the men and women on the same course at the same time."