Golf: NZ separates strokeplay and matchplay events

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It is not often a golfing organisation can be said to turn tradition on its head.

But New Zealand Golf (NZG) has done that by announcing a major overhaul to the format of its blue riband amateur event.

The national amateur championship will be contested separately from the 72-hole strokeplay event, which for the past 47 years has been used as the qualifying phase of the championship.

The championship was purely a matchplay contest from the time it was first contested in 1893 until 1963.

Now, the strokeplay and matchplay events will be held as strictly separate, stand-alone tournaments, with the amateur championship title awarded to the winner of the latter.

As well, the national foursomes titles, previously contested the day before the first round of strokeplay, will also be held in their own right at different venues and times.

NZG national tournament manager Dave Mangan said the key driver behind the change was to shorten the length of the championship, which ran to eight days when staged in Christchurch in April this year.

Mangan said it was hoped the strokeplay title winner would attain greater kudos in future. Previously, the strokeplay event was very much overshadowed by the matchplay competition which followed.

"With the New Zealand strokeplay now being a stand-alone event, it will grow to become a very prestigious title," he said.

The changes will also allow both the men's and women's events to be played alongside each other, which was successful at Russley in April.

Next year's 72-hole strokeplay championship, for men and women, will be played at Hastings on March 29 to April 1, with the amateur championship at Mt Maunganui on April 18-22, featuring 36 holes of qualifying and three days of matchplay. The men's foursomes will also be held in Mt Maunganui on the Friday before the annual Grant Clements memorial, and the women's foursomes likewise on the Friday before the Ruth Middleton trophy at Matamata.

"We are glad that Mt Maunganui and Matamata golf clubs have put their hands up to be the permanent hosts of the New Zealand foursomes," Mangan said. "There is a lot of tradition in those events."

- NZPA