But they’ll need to be near or even at the top of their game to have a chance in a high-quality line-up led by three-time Open winner William Brown and reigning champion Mark Smith.
Rotorua’s Smith, a member of the Springfield course, vowed he would be back to defend the crown after his 20th-hole victory over fellow Bay of Plenty masters representative Craig Van Der Nagel (Te Puke) last year.
Both men are returning and, having gone so close only for Smith to deny him the cigar, Van Der Nagel could be among the hungriest of those with a realistic chance of raising the Keiha Cup as Open champion.
Waka Donnelly would dispute that. Having been stuck on seven Open titles since his last triumph in 2010, the man who recently returned home from Hawke’s Bay to work for LeaderBrand, and is a long-time supporter of the tournament, would love to make it eight and equal the great Frank Gordon as the most prolific winner in its 93-year history.
Awapuni Links head greenkeeper Brown will almost certainly have something to say about that. Having joined a small list of players to have won three or more Opens when he triumphed in 2022, injury forced him out of defending it last year.
Once again Brown will balance running a small but hard-working greenkeeping team, who produce a PGA Tour quality course year after year, with competing in the tournament proper.
Brown goes in as neither the titleholder nor the senior men’s club champion, having had to pull out of the recent club champs due to a clash of dates.
In his absence, South African motel manager Rob Maruszewski claimed his first Poverty Bay senior honour at his first try. What would have happened if Brown had been available is anyone’s guess but he would have needed his A-game.
Maruszewski was sublime on his way to a 10 and 9 demolition of Donnelly in the 36-hole final – shooting 3-under 69 in the opening 18 and 3-under 33 for the third nine holes.
Smith, Brown and Maruszewski are in the feature four in tomorrow’s 36 holes of strokeplay qualifying, alongside the 2021 Open champion Anaru Reedy.
Tairāwhiti Golf Association president Reedy is one of a band of Electrinet Park players in the field. Among their leading lights are Daniel Collier, who shot the same top qualifying score as Smith last year but missed out on the No 1 seeding for the matchplay on countback.
The 1995 champion David Solomann, a Poverty Bay member back then but at Auckland club Whitford Park nowadays, is back, along with son Glenn. The pair have made the long journey to Gisborne several times this year to compete for Waikohu in the Oligoi Jug interclub pennants, ever-improving Glenn winning Player of the Series and going into tomorrow among the lowest 10 handicappers in the field.
Patutahi has a couple of potentially dangerous chances in Dwayne Russell and Jace Brown, although their No 1 player Hukanui Brown is not competing this year.
There is a smattering of other outside players not so well known in these parts but capable of becoming the 48th different Open champion.
Dark horses are in abundance.
Once again the Open has attracted a lot of visitors from as far afield as Christchurch.
Tomorrow’s 36 holes of strokeplay qualifying will sort out the seven groups of 16 who start matchplay on Friday, with finals on Saturday afternoon.
The tournament will again culminate in the Emerre and Hathaway/BDO $1000 Nearest To Pin Challenge on the 18th hole following the finals.
This year also features the Craigs Investment Partners Hole In One $20,000 Challenge. The first person to ace the par-3 11th in the opening qualifying round only will pocket $10,000 while the other $10,000 will go to local charity the Sunrise Foundation.
The last time a hole-in-one competition was run at the Open (2019), it was won by a player in the first group to tee off.
