Golf: Geary poised to finish well at NZ Open

For a young golfer with a thin career CV, Josh Geary has much to recommend him at the New Zealand Open this week.

Geary boasts a fine track record at The Hills on the outskirts of Arrowtown, which is hosting the US$600,000 ($845,000) Nationwide Tour co-sanctioned championship for the third time, starting tomorrow.

The 25-year-old professional finished in a share of 12th place at the first event here in 2007 and improved to a tie for fourth last year.

Almost 12 months on, Geary is his normally confident self heading into the opening event on the Nationwide Tour schedule, which next week takes in the Moonah Classic near Melbourne before heading back to its North American roots.

"I like the layout of this course and I normally play well here so they are good signs for this week," the Tauranga golfer said yesterday after taking in 12 holes of practice.

"It [the course] looks really lush this year, it's very green and defined and the fairways look fantastic, while the greens are in tiptop shape."

The Open marks Geary's second start using a new ball and set of clubs.

He unveiled his new equipment last week in Christchurch where he posted successive rounds of 75 to miss the cut at the New Zealand PGA Championship.

He is eager to put the equipment to work here after a largely frustrating 2009 bookended by strong performances in New Zealand and Australia and a long, barren patch in between.

He finished second in the New Zealand PGA a week before his Open top-five return, then ended the calendar year by coming seventh equal at the Australian PGA Championship.

These three results made up the bulk of his Australasian earnings, which topped A$150,000 ($189,800) to leave him fourth on that tour's order of merit.

That in turn has earned him starts on the breakaway OneAsia circuit this year, and he intends playing at least eight of the 10 tournaments confirmed on that tour and complementing them with appearances on the Canadian Tour, where he has played since 2007.

The high moneylist placing has also guaranteed him a start in the third and final stage of qualifying for the PGA Tour in the United States at the end of the year.

All of this has convinced him to bypass attempting to earn starts on the Nationwide Tour in the US via Monday qualifiers, a route he was forced to take despite banking close to US$70,000 from his two tour appearances in Queenstown and Christchurch a year ago.

Geary found last year trying because of his restricted starts.

"I only played 12 to 13 four-round tournaments for the whole year. It was very quiet, especially when I played four or five of them in the first three months. It was kind of frustrating to make such a great start then have no more starts.

"It's hard teeing it up after not playing for two or three months. You can't get a momentum going that you can when you are playing regularly.

"Too much qualifying doesn't do much for your game. The lack of play showed in some events when I came back fresh and missed a few cuts because I didn't have enough tournament golf behind me."

- NZPA