Hastings Golf Club wins hosting rights for 2024 New Zealand PGA Championships

The Hastings Golf Club will host the New Zealand PGA Championships in March. Photo / NZME

Status as a PGA Tour of Australasia venue beckons for the Hastings Golf Club.

The Bridge Pā course has been announced as the site for the 2024 New Zealand PGA Championship, a tournament Hastings hasn’t hosted since 1949.

With a purse of $100,000, securing hosting rights for the March 7 to 10 event is a big enough coup in itself.

But the real excitement is what could come in 2025 and beyond, as Golf New Zealand and its counterparts in Australia negotiate to have the New Zealand PGA reinstated to the Australasian Tour.

That would put Hastings up alongside elite championship courses from across the Tasman, such as Royal Melbourne, Royal Queensland and The Australian.

“This thing is signed up for one year and then it’ll be reviewed afterwards and, if it’s gone well for every party, it’ll be a two-year extension after that,” Hastings Golf Club president Wayne Mudgway said.

This year’s edition of the NZ PGA was held north of Auckland, at Gulf Harbour. But Gulf Harbour closed in July and Golf New Zealand offered Hastings the opportunity to host in its place.

The details of that arrangement were confirmed last Thursday and announced to Hastings Golf Club members on Friday.

Golf New Zealand has since confirmed the goal is to get the NZ PGA back on the Australiasian Tour and return it to its former glory.

British Open winners such as Peter Thompson and Kel Nagle are former NZ PGA champions, along with US Open and British Open winner Tony Jacklin.

Notable New Zealand winners include British Open champion Bob Charles, Frank Nobilo, Greg Turner and Steven Alker.

“This is the second-biggest event on the [New Zealand] calendar. We’re thrilled to have the opportunity,’’ said Mudgway.

All that eclipses this tournament nationally is the New Zealand Open, held near Queenstown.

Mudgway says it’s too early to speculate on what calibre of field Hastings will attract in March, or if the tournament will be televised.

But the club’s hopes of hosting the NZ PGA on a long-term basis will not be affected by redevelopment plans, which include the reconfiguring of holes on the front nine.

“That whole project is before [the Hastings District] Council now and we don’t expect anything to come back until this time next year. That’s our outside expectation,” Mudgway said.

The plan is for construction of the new or modified holes to be done first, then a new clubhouse and associated facilities. No exact timeframe has been set for that work.

Hastings Golf Club celebrated its 125th anniversary earlier this month and gaining these hosting rights “just caps off a fantastic period for the club”, Mudgway said.

The Hastings Open, which was a professional event this January, will again be held in January but as a strictly amateur tournament.

Wallace Development is naming rights sponsor for both the NZ PGA and Hastings Open.

Hamish Bidwell joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2022 and works out of the Hastings newsroom.