KEY POINTS:
One of the key aims of New Zealand Golf's strategic plan last year was to organise and promote more high profile events. After the branding and expansion of the Charles Tour and now the announcement of the first NZ Women's Open, one box can be ticked off.
It's
a courageous sports body that launches a new professional event in these economic times. The corporate sponsorship well is pretty dry but the Christchurch City Council has decided bringing 140 women golfers and their teams, plus out of town fans, to the city for a weekend at the height of summer is a worthwhile investment of ratepayers' funds.
The CCC has had a worthwhile return on its contribution to the New Zealand PGA at Clearwater and this latest funding underlines Christchurch's claim to be the focal point of professional golf here.
But the seed money has come from the residual funds of the old Women's Golf New Zealand. When WGNZ merged with the men's NZ Golf Association, there was a substantial sum which, quite correctly, the WGNZ officials of the time didn't want just to disappear into the new organisation's bank account. So a trust fund to promote the women's game was set up. Some money has been used to support fledgling
New Zealand professionals on tour in Europe but the real ambition has been to set up a national Women's Open.
There was a professional tournament for women 33 years ago during a boom time for professional golf in this country.
Then the men's circuit lasted six weeks in the early summer, had more tournaments than Australia and even included events in Dunedin and Invercargill.
The women's event was sponsored by a cigarette company but even their generosity couldn't keep it going more than one year. Despite the presence of the legendary JoAnne Carner, Australian amateur Jane Lock won the title at The Grange.
Women's golf is really battling to attract new players in New Zealand, especially in the younger age group. Although there has been a small spike in club membership , women make up only about a quarter of members. About 1200 junior members are registered.
As the huge support and following for the football under-17 Women's World Cup showed in the past month, a vast number of girls want to be involved in sport. Golf needs to attract some of those sporting types.
The Open is an initiative to show women of all ages how rewarding sport golf can be physically, mentally and socially. It's also an opportunity to show the public women's golf at the elite level can actually be a fun game to watch.
The key for success is to ensure that as many people as possible get to see and hear about this tournament. There is no live TV deal for the inaugural event in late January because no network was interested. That will hopefully change once the quality and appeal of the players is recognised.
As with the annual women's tennis classic in Auckland, New Zealand players might not make much of an impact to start with but, if the New Zealand Women's Open can be a catalyst to finding golf's equivalent of Marina Erakovic, the tournament will have done its job.