New Zealand golfer Josh Geary is looking for a hat-trick of wins when the Charles Tour resumes for the Wairakei Open near Taupo starting today.
Geary followed his debut win as a professional at the Tauranga Open in May by winning the Saskatchewan Open on the Canadian Tourlast month. He has returned from Canada to chase his second win on the new Charles Tour at one of this country's premier courses at Wairakei International.
Geary will join a strong field of home-based and young touring professionals along with leading amateurs in the $40,000 four-round tournament.
It includes Tauranga's Jared Pender and Christchurch's Dana Kim, who are using the tournament as a shakedown ahead of next month's world amateur teams championships in Adelaide.
Key professionals include defending Wairakei Open champion Doug Holloway, two-time domestic tour winner Mark Purser and Grant Moorhead.
Holloway also won the 2005 Taranaki Open, was third there last year and also third in the 2006 Tauranga Open.
Purser won the inaugural Wairakei Open in 2006 and the Tauranga Open last year. Other leading professionals include Mathew Holten, Marcus Wheelhouse, Mark Boe, Stuart Reese and Craig Owen.
The leading male amateurs include Pender, Ryan Fox, Nick Gillespie and several junior internationals including Gary-John Hill, Seve Ha, Peter Spearman-Burn and Ben Campbell.
There are 10 women competing, among them Kim, Pam Sowden, Zoe Brake and Emily Perry.
