Former US PGA golf champion Wayne Grady will take part in next week's New Zealand Open in Auckland.
The likeable Australian, with seven career victories to his credit, will compete in the championship at the Auckland Golf Club starting on Thursday next week.
Grady, who won his first tournament shortly after turning
professional in 1978, took out the US PGA Championship in 1990.
He nearly won his first Major the previous year when he was beaten in a playoff with compatriot Greg Norman and American Mark Calcavecchia in the 1989 British Open.
Grady, who has won the Australian PGA Championship twice, has also won in Europe, Asia and on the US Tour along with winning the World Cup in 1989 with Auckland-based Peter Fowler.
He has been in virtual retirement before returning to play in the US Open last year, making six of eight cuts during the Australasian season. This summer he has finished in a tie for second in the New South Wales Open, 35th in the Australian Open and 39th in the Mastercard Masters.
It is a far cry from his early start in the game, when he had his first application to turn professional rejected by the Queensland PGA who considered he was not up to standard. Grady, who is also involved as a television commentator, is the current Chairman of the Australasian PGA Tour.
The Holden New Zealand Open begins at the Auckland Golf Club at Middlemore with the Pro Am on Tuesday next week, with the tournament running from January 16 to 19.
- NZPA
