Tiger Woods is coming, but the bulk of New Zealand's finest are staying away from the New Zealand Open next month.
Phil Tataurangi yesterday became the fourth top New Zealander to pull out of the Paraparaumu Beach tournament.
He follows Frank Nobilo, Michael Long and Grant Waite as a confirmed non-starter for the January 10-13 event.
All four are based in the United States. Like Long, Tataurangi wants to compete in the Hawaii Open, a US PGA Tour event, which clashes with the New Zealand tournament.
Long and Tataurangi are particularly keen to make strong starts to the US tour next year. Long is preparing for his first season there and Tataurangi, after battling injuries for two years, regained his tour card for next year only after coming through the tough qualifying school this week in Florida.
Nobilo has said his absence from Paraparaumu Beach is due to a desire to spend some holiday time with his family, while Waite has declined to outline his reasons for skipping the $1 million event north of Wellington.
Tataurangi, 30, has been a staunch supporter of the New Zealand Open and under normal circumstances he would have been eager to compete at Paraparaumu Beach, where the presence of world No 1 Tiger Woods has lifted anticipation levels to unprecedented heights.
"I hope that this is only a one-year situation where the tournaments clash and I look forward to playing in many New Zealand Opens in years to come," Tataurangi said yesterday.
On the overseas front, controversial United States professional Casey Martin is in line for a start at the Open.
Martin is sure to add interest, and a degree of curiosity value, to the Open. He has contacted the tournament organisers about coming out and a decision is expected shortly.
A former Stanford University teammate of Woods and prominent tour professional Notah Begay this year, Martin won his highly publicised crusade to be able to use a golf cart during US PGA events.
Martin suffers from a circulatory condition called Klippel Trenauny Weber Syndrome, which has no known cure, and makes prolonged walking difficult. The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that Martin had a legal right to ride a cart in PGA Tour events under the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act.
The 29-year-old from Oregon is one of the biggest drivers off the tee on the tour.
After losing his US PGA Tour card last year, he has had a tough season on the second-tier Buy.com Tour, making only nine cuts from 21 starts.
Negotiations are also continuing with the most celebrated big hitter in world golf, American John Daly.
The snag is that Daly will not fly on a commercial jet, so organisers are working at getting a special flight sorted out for him.
Daly is understood to be in the field for the Heineken Classic at Royal Melbourne in late January. The Open interests him as it would provide an ideal lead-up.
Open spokesman John Freer said Woods would be leaving for New Zealand from Hawaii, where he will be playing in the Mercedes Championships at Kapalua, Maui, on January 7 (NZ time).
He would fly into Wellington Airport in his Dassault Falcon executive jet.
The following day, he will play a practice round at Paraparaumu Beach and that night would be among 1400 people at the Steve Williams Golf Foundation's charity dinner at Wellington's Events Centre.
On Wednesday afternoon Woods plays in the pro-am and has a morning start when the tournament proper tees off on January 10.
Freer said 100 media people would be accredited, 20 of them from overseas. That included high-profile journalists from golf magazines, and a variety of the biggest newspapers from around the globe.
"That was one of our aims, to help get New Zealand and the region on the map," Freer said.
He admitted that the September 11 terrorist attacks hit the tournament hard coming three days after the Open 2002 launch.
"But ticket sales are really starting to move now and accommodation [around Paraparaumu] is really starting to pick up over the last two weeks."
He said the success of Michael Campbell and David Smail at the World Cup in Japan had been a big boost.
Qualifying tournaments will be held in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, with the final one at Waikanae.