2024 Canterbury Stroke Play Preview

All is set for an exciting 2024 Lamb and Hayward Canterbury Stroke Play Championship this weekend at one of the premier and historic golfing venues in Christchurch Golf Club. As expected, there was again huge interest for places in the field with over 160 registrations from players across Canterbury and NZ entering. With the expanded format this year 108 players have been included forming a quality field showcasing the best amateurs of Canterbury and beyond.

The Open Men’s field this year contains senior, u19, and Masters players all playing in the same division in search of both the overall title and their respective age groups titles. Additionally, of course on the line are Canterbury Order of Merit points, World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) points, and finally one of the last opportunities for amateurs to gain a spot for the NZ Open Final qualifying event taking place in March.

Local prospects for the Men’s competition include the likes of Canterbury representative and defending Stroke Play champion Dominic Brettkelly coming in off the back of wins at the Weedons and Waitikiri Opens. 15-year-old Cooper Moore fresh of a Otago Stroke Play title last weekend will be a player to watch as well as the likes of Yuki Miya, Mike Toeke, Sam McGill, and current NZ Amateur champion Seb May, all boasting impressive handicaps. There are also some big home course prospects in the form of Canterbury captain Reid Hilton who may be hard to stop as well as fellow Canterbury and Christchurch teammates Tom Lee and Tim Leonard who will be looking to make use of their home course knowledge. In terms of out-of-town prospects, defending Canterbury Match Play Champion Robbie Turnbull returns to the garden city looking to claim the premier Canterbury title for the first time, the Remuera-based player arrives as the top seed. He will be joined by the likes of Otago youngsters Ricky Kang and Jan Ebbinge who will be looking to challenge for not only a high table finish but also the Ron Clements memorial trophy awarded to the best performing u19 male player. In total there will be 24 u19 men taking part in the event showing a good wave of young players making the cut.

In terms of the Masters, there is a quality lineup of 40+ players amoungst the field who will be looking to make a big impact. Many of which have made the trip to Christchurch for a nudge at the master’s title including Gore’s Leith Campion, 2022 champion Ben Crawford, and defending champion Andrew Hobbs. Local Canterbury Masters representative James Howard will be a big local hope following an impressive recent Freyberg tournament in 2023 as well as the likes of Richard Sinclair and Aaron Forsyth. Other notable familiar names include the likes of Kieran Sharvin, Brett Turner, and Jonathan Stieller who are all capable as well as a few new players to the division such as Riki Borrell and Teariki Tangiiti who both recently turned 40. In a good quality field that sees 16 of the 26 master’s players holding a 2.0 or lower handicap index this division could have any number of contenders.  

In the Open women’s field, we again this year see both senior women and masters women playing together in the same division but with each also having their own respective titles to play for as well as WAGR points. Overall, it is a very young field that will take part with 19 of the 20 players (not including Masters players) being 17 years of age or younger. The three top seeds are all visitors with Aucklander Chloe Lam playing of a +5.1 looking to take the title but will have stiff competition from fellow Aucklander Juwon Kim who finished as runner-up at the recent Taranaki and North Island Stroke Play. Otago’s Yoonae Jeong will also be making a big push having won the event in 2022 and finishing runner-up last year. In terms of Canterbury hopes, Aroha Minhinnick of Waimairi Beach will be sure to have some support with the Canterbury representative looking to improve upon her 4^th place finish in 2023. Russley’s Alisia Ren will also fancy her chances having come within a whisper of winning the recent Canterbury Women’s Champion of Champions match here at the same venue last November. Another chance is Rangiora’s Sora Kishida who last year won the u16 NZ Age Groups title and recently played in the number 1 spot for Canterbury at the NZ Interprovincial tournament. The only Christchurch Golf Club contender is the experienced Canterbury and Samoan representative Olive Tapu who will be looking to use her home course knowledge to put out a good weekend of scoring.

In the master’s category, the favorites are likely to be Clearwater’s Rachel Eder and Rangiora’s Jo Kent both of which have represented Canterbury at master’s level and the former senior level. Both have proven to be able to play well at the multi-round type events so should be a good battle between those two.

In summary, we have an extremely exciting 54 holes of golf ahead with a quality field consisting of the youngest player at just 12 years of age, to our oldest competitor at 71 years of age. With the Christchurch Golf Club in no doubt immaculate condition, we encourage the Canterbury golfing public to come out and support and witness some high-level amateur golf.

The full draw can be viewed – HERE.

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2024 Canterbury Stroke Play Players

Men (including u19)

Masters Men

Women

Women’s Masters