Golf: Pro Am set to attract 40 top golfers

Nick Gillespie is congratulated by Grant Moorhead after their sudden death play-off on the 18th hole in last year's Craigs Wanganui Pro Am. PHOTO/FILE

At least 40 of New Zealand's top professional golfers are expected to line up in the 2014 Pin High Craigs Investment Wanganui Pro Am tournament next month.

The popular annual tournament is a New Zealand PGA-sanctioned event hosted by the Wanganui Golf Club at the Belmont links and will be played over two days - September 19 and 20.

The organising committee, with the club, has invited all Wanganui Golf Club members to enter a team of three amateur players. Individuals keen to play will be assigned a team.

This is a team event, with each team comprising three amateurs, to be joined by one professional. Maximum official NZGA handicaps permitted for entry are 30 for men and 36 for women. The women will play off the women's tees.

The team competition will be played over two rounds. The format will be the best three Stableford scores (including those of the professional) to count on each hole. The professionals will be playing for $20,000 prize money, and amateurs for a comprehensive prize table for the team competition.

While primarily a team event, there will also be prizes for closest to the pin for amateurs and professionals.

Cost to enter a team of three is $900 + GST ($300 + GST per person) which includes:

36 hole tournament, 18 holes each day

Pin High golf shirt for every amateur competitor (retail value $80 each)

Complimentary lunch on both days

Hospitality and clubhouse refreshments

Tournament dinner for participants on day one. The dinner programme will include a Calcutta auction on the second day's team scoring, with part of the proceeds going to Hospice Wanganui.

Teams or individuals need to contact the organising committee or the club to enter.

Expat Wanganui professional Nick Gillespie won last year's tournament after a close tussle with New Plymouth veteran Grant Moorhead in cold, blustery conditions.

Both golfers carded 139 for the two rounds with Gillespie scoring 67 on the first day compared with Moorhead's 68 before the scores were reversed in day two - Gillespie carding 72 and Moorhead 71. Gillespie claimed the event in the play-off.