The organisation which arranged for a striking Maori cloak, or korowai, to be given to New Zealand Golf as a prize for the winner of the New Zealand Open is peeved the presentation to new champion Richard Finch last weekend wasn't televised.
The korowai was nowhere to beseen during the public presentation on the 18th green after the tournament at The Hills near Queenstown last Sunday.
Instead the garment was draped over Finch at a later ceremony in front of only officials and volunteers, in a marquee in the hospitality area.
The chairman of the Ngaki Tamariki Trust, which passed on the korowai to New Zealand Golf, retired district court judge Mick Brown, was surprised that the garment wasn't seen in public.
"I thought it had been dropped altogether when I didn't see it on television. Later I heard that it had been presented behind closed doors and I thought that was sad.
"I don't want to see this taken out of proportion but I feel deep regret."
New Zealand Golf chief executive Bill MacGowan says it was purely an issue of timing.
"Television only wanted the presentations to last four-and-a-half minutes so we decided to present the cloak in the Championship Club afterwards. Richard Finch was delighted to wear it as the tournament winner in front of all the volunteers."
The korowai, reputedly worth more than $20,000, was donated by a very generous benefactor, according to Brown. It was presented at the New Zealand Open for the first time at Gulf Harbour last year and pictures of the 2006 champion Nathan Green adorned in the garment were prominent after that tournament. The plan then was to develop the presentation of the korowai into a tradition of the New Zealand Open, much like the green jacket award at the Masters in Augusta.
The Ngaki Tamariki Trust, which has been helping elite young Maori golfers with tournament and coaching expenses for nearly 20 years, had three of its recent graduates, Josh Carmichael, Doug Holloway and Brenden Stuart, all make the cut at The Hills.
