Northland's trio of golfers earned a sleep-in before starting the Blue Chip New Zealand Open, with the three scheduled to tee off in the latter stages of today's first round.
Mangawhai amateur Scott Wightman, playing in his first open, will tee off from the first hole at 1.30pm, with Australian professionals
Chris Downes and Terry Price in his playing group.
The second Northlander away, 10 minutes later from the 10th tee, will be Alex Tait, who will play with fellow Kiwi professional Mark Purser and Frenchman Julien Foret.
The last of the three local qualifiers to tee off is Doug Batty, who will start at the 10th tee at 2pm. Batty has the rather dubious distinction, along with Englishman Mark Foster and Kiwi amateur Kevin Budden, of being in the 52nd and final playing group to get under way.
There are 156 players in the field, all (except the amateurs) chasing the $2.16 million in prizemoney.
Coverage of the Open today is on Sky Sports from 1pm to 6pm.
