Weather threatens pro-am

IT'S UP to the man in the sky with the thunderbolts whether today's start for the Pin High Craig Investment Partners pro-am at the Wanganui Golf Club goes off without a hitch.

A finalised field of 39 professionals along with teams of amateurs will contest the NZPGA-sanctioned 36-hole tournament, starting this morning and scheduled to finish tomorrow afternoon.

Christchurch professional and former New Zealand strokeplay champion Martin Pettigrew is a late withdrawal, but Richard Lee, Daniel Pearce, Brad Shilton, Troy Ropiha and 2013 winner Nick Gillespie are all starters.

New Plymouth's Grant Moorehead, who went to a sudden death play-off with Gillespie, also returns, as does the 2014 runner-up Victor Janin of Rotorua.

Frustratingly, weather conditions last week were perfect for golf, only for the wet to return in the last three days.

Staff were out on the greens yesterday after the heavy rainfall, while keeping an eye on the weather updates from various agencies, hoping for good news.

The MetService predictions indicated for mostly cloud today, with a few showers in the morning and gusty northwesterlies.

Saturday is looking slightly better for the sun to poke out, although showers remain a prospect.

Weather also played a big part last year when the winner, Waikato professional Mark Purser, was the only golfer to go under par on the first 18 holes in very windy conditions.

The wind picked up further on the Saturday, leaving two greens unplayable, so the tournament was abandoned after eight more holes with Purser declared the winner.The 2015 field is: DominicBarson, Harry Bateman, Hayden Beard, Joonsang Chung, Rodney Donaldson, Susan Farron, Grant Fisher, Mike Gainsford, Josh Geary, Nick Gillespie, Craig Hamilton, Steven Han, Brad Hayward, Steven Heyes, Scott Hill, Douglas Holloway, Leighton James, Victor Janin, Shaun Jones, Minsoo Ko, Peter Lee, Richard Lee, Patrick Moore, Grant Moorehead, Kieran Muir, Woonchul Na, Craig Owen, Simon Owen, Daniel Pearce, Scott Puddick, Mark Purser, Troy Ropiha, Brad Shilton, Dean Sipson, Chris Treen, Malcolm Wells, Fraser Wilkin, Kyle Wong and Pieter Zwart.