Off the tee: The honeymoon's not over for Brooky

Fresh from her wedding here in New Zealand, Lynnette Brooky has launched her season in Europe with a share of 11th place in the Tenerife Ladies Open.

The Wellington professional finished the windswept event with a three-over total of 291 - 12 shots behind the winner, Italian Diana Luna.

The 21-year-old Luna, who is regularly compared to Sarah Jessica Parker from the Sex in the City television series, has been a professional for only two years and this was her first victory on the European tour.

The other New Zealanders in the field also made the cut. Gina Scott from Waikato finished equal 19th on 294 and North Harbour's Pam Sowden was 54th on 307.

The European women's tour has a 16-tournament schedule, beginning with two jointly sanctioned events in Australia.

The European tournaments are in Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Sweden, Hungary and Denmark.

The two majors, the Evian Masters in France in July and the British Open at Sunningdale in August, are jointly sanctioned with the US tour and carry prizemoney of more than €1 million ($1.9 million).

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New Zealand professional Steven Alker boosted his Nationwide tour earnings in the US with a top-10 finish.

The former Waikato player finished equal 10th in the BMW Charity Pro-Am at The Cliffs with rounds of 67, 71, 66 and 69.

He was three shots behind Ryuji Imada, who won in a playoff.

Alker moves from 139th on the money list to 69th with earnings of US$16,337 ($25,800). Fellow Kiwi Michael Long missed the cut and drops from 36th to 42nd with a total of US$26,094.

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Waikato teenager James Gill has missed out on a trip to the junior World Cup in Japan next month - because he is a fulltime university student.

This bizarre regulation is apparently designed to rule out American collegiate players, but it hardly sits well in an amateur sport concerned for the career prospects of its players.

The 18-year-old Gill, a management student at Waikato University, has some consolation. He recently won the New Zealand Universities title in Dunedin and will trial with a squad at Taupo this weekend from which a team for the world universities' tournament in Thailand will be chosen.

The New Zealand junior team is: Jae An (Bay of Plenty), Kevin Chun (Auckland), Thomas Campbell (Otago) and Aaron Leech (Wellington). They will compete against 14 international teams in the 72-hole strokeplay event at the Bears Paw Golf Club in the Shiga Prefecture from June 22-25.

New Zealand came close in 2001 when they finished just one point behind winners South Africa.

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Rod Barltrop from Wellington, who won the national matchplay title 30 years ago at Manukau, captured the Waikato seniors tournament last weekend. He had rounds of 72, 72, 73 at the Ngaruawahia, Narrows and St Andrews courses.

Runner-up to Barltrop in the 55-59 section was Ngahinepouri golfer Stu Reid. Hamilton's Ian Marshall was third.

Sepp Steffany (Waiuku) won the 50-54 age group and former Waikato representative Les Coombe (Kaitaia) won the over-60 section.