Dane Thomas Bjorn is poised to be unveiled as the New Zealand Open's seventh Ryder Cup golf signing, while there is still hope Nick Faldo or Colin Montgomerie could join the star cast for Gulf Harbour.
The Dominion Post newspaper reported that Bjorn's entry for next month's $1.5 million European
Tour tournament was to be officially announced at the Whangaparoa Peninsula links on Friday.
Player liaison Greg Turner will also step up efforts to lure former world No 1 Faldo and seven-times European No 1 Montgomerie to the February 10-13 tournament, with the duo set to play the Heineken Classic at Royal Melbourne the previous week.
Turner has already approached the agents for Faldo and Montgomerie, the newspaper reported.
"It's fair to say we've contacted Faldo and Monty and said we'd love to host them and we'd do whatever we can to make it happen. But realistically it's unrealistic to expect them to play here," Turner said.
New Zealand Golf has a policy of not paying appearance fees.
"Agents hold out to the last possible moment for appearance fees so if we did get one of them it would be at the last moment. But honestly, we're at the back of the queue," Turner told the Dominion Post.
Bjorn is poised to join fellow Ryder Cup players Paul McGinley, David Howell, Barry Lane, Pierre Fulke, Andrew Coltart and Constantino Rocca at Gulf Harbour for the event, co-sanctioned with the European Tour.
The last of Bjorn's 11 European Tour victories came at the 2002 BMW International Open in Germany.
The 33-year-old has amassed US$8.82 million (NZ$16.5 million) in career earnings.
This year, Bjorn has place second at the China Open and finished in a tie for fourth at the Hong Kong Open to be third on the European money list with US$112,898.
- NZPA
