Golf: Coastal winds likely to test Muriwai field

Danger Beach: Muriwai is the title of the latest television reality show.

It could well serve as a warning for New Zealand's top golfers next week.

The leading locally based professionals and top amateurs will be contesting the inaugural Muriwai Open, a round of the Charles Tour which is designed as a proving ground for the professional stars of the future.

If the wind blows off the Tasman, as it usually does, the $40,000 72-hole tournament will test the abilities of the golfers rather differently than the Tauranga Open last week, which yielded a round of 59 for Auckland professional Richard Lee and a winning total of 261, 19 under, for young Masterton amateur Ben Campbell.

Muriwai has a love-hate relationship with the sea. In 50 years, the waves have eaten their way inland, devouring some of the original holes and threatening others.

A shift inland and northwards began 14 years ago. The first nine of the new layout was opened in April 1999. The second nine came into play a couple of years later.

Gone are some of the old favourites, such as the par-three second, which in storms was covered with spume whipped off the waves. But the replacements, particularly on the second nine, retain the character of the course.

This is true links country, dry in winter and well watered in summer by an extensive irrigation system. The roar of the Tasman is never far away and as the winds shift they can change the character of holes.

Not surprisingly, Muriwai is a refuge for city golfers driven from their clay-based courses by soggy Auckland winters. But it is very much an all-weather course these days and it is popular year-round.

The club has already celebrated its 50th jubilee, but the original course wasn't fully formed until 1961.

The North Island men's and women's championships, the national women's strokeplay and the Freyberg Masters have been staged successfully on the new layout.

During the women's strokeplay 16-year-old Yeon Song Kim shot a record eight-under 65 on the 5240m women's championship layout.

The men's championship course is 6186m with a par of 72. Club member Rob Noffke holds the record with a 66.

The field for next week's open includes two former NZ Open champions, Auckland-based Australian Peter Fowler, who won at Paraparaumu Beach in 1993 and is rebuilding his career on the senior circuit after surgery, and Otago professional Mahal Pearce, who won at Middlemore in 2003.

As well as Campbell among the elite amateur field will be the recently crowned national strokeplay champion, Brad Kendall, and a number of national representatives.

The women's field includes the national strokeplay champion and winner at Tauranga, Caroline Bon, and the two-time national matchplay champion, Cecilia Cho.

There will be a pro-am on Wednesday and 18 holes on each of the next four days. Entrance is by gold coin donation to the Variety Children's Charity.