Off the tee: Strategies in the wind

A field of 120 golfers from New Zealand, Australia, Canada and New Caledonia will tee off on Monday at Dunedin's Chisholm Park in pursuit of the 72-hole strokeplay title.

The 32 lowest scorers will qualify for the matchplay, which will culminate in a 36-hole final on April 13.

Low flight as well as low scores may be needed on the testing links course where the wind can play havoc with any wayward shots.

Paul Booth, until recently the resident professional at Chisholm Park, believes the way players handle the wind will be crucial.

"A couple of years ago we had a field of Aussie pros and the wind got up strong. The average score that day was 81," he says.

"Depending on how the wind blows, the scores could range from the mid-60s to the 90s."

Otago amateur Brent McEwan, an entrant next week, shot a 65 in the professional tournament, but there have been subtle changes to the course since then.

The championship par is 71 with a carded length of 5685m. Otago has had drought conditions for some time, but rain in recent days has freshened up the course. The rough remains "quite penalising".

Last year's amateur championships were staged at the Auckland Golf Club's Middlemore course.

Waikato's Brad Shilton won the strokeplay title then with a nine-under-par total, including a record-equalling 65. He will be back to defend his crown.

Rotorua golfer Sam Hunt, who won the strokeplay title at Mt Maunganui in 2001, is back from a spell of ill health.

Both the matchplay champion, Australian Marcus Fraser, and runner-up Eddie Lee, from Christchurch, have turned professional. But Wellingtonian Bradley Iles, who was beaten by Fraser in the semifinals, is entered.

Iles, 19, won the South Island title and was runner-up in the Australian matchplay.

Following the Four Nations tournament in Christchurch this week, 10 Australians and three Canadians have entered.

The championships begin with the foursomes on Sunday. The full field will play 18 holes of strokeplay on Monday and Tuesday and the top 64 will contest the final 36 holes on Wednesday. The matchplay begins with one round on Thursday and two on Friday. The 36-hole semifinals and final are at the weekend.

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Auckland showed that it is regaining its strength in amateur golf with a thrilling win in the Northern Regional Junior Quadrangular at Manukau.

In the deciding game against the very strong Bay of Plenty under-19 team, Auckland prevailed after Kevin Chun beat Jae An 2 and 1 and Travis O'Connell eagled the last hole to beat Terry Hong one up.

Auckland won both the under-19 and under-16 contests from Bay of Plenty. Northland were third in the under-19 and Waikato third in the under-16.

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Arnold Palmer has welcomed the decision of the Augusta National Golf Club to allow former Masters champions to continue playing in the event after they turn 65.

"We will count on our champions to know when their playing careers at the Masters have come to an end," chairman Hootie Johnson said.

Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, who have 10 green winner's jackets between them and are the only Masters champions who are members at Augusta National, convinced Johnson to abandon his controversial age limit policy.

The Masters traditionally gave its champions a lifetime pass to play in the tournament, but Johnson became increasingly upset when some of them withdrew after the first round - or sometimes after playing only one hole.

Palmer, who is 73, plans to play next week in the Masters and also next year, which would give him 50 appearances in the major championship he won four times.

"I had it in the back of my mind ... that I want to play competitively in the Masters for 50 years," Palmer said.

"I am personally very pleased that will be possible now Jack and I are grateful to Hootie Johnson for his thoughtful consideration of this issue, and thank him on behalf of all of the past champions for retaining this important Masters tradition."

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Kiwi golfers Michael Long and Grant Waite had slim pickings from the first Nationwide (formerly Buy. Com) Tour event in the US this season.

Waite finished 41st in Louisiana to earn US$2090 ($3,779), while Long was 51st for US$1615. Mahal Pearce, who played only the two tournaments in Adelaide and Christchurch, is 11th on the money list with US$34,849. Long is 64th with US$4937, while Waite has played only the one event.