The field is now confirmed for the 2018 Lamb & Hayward Canterbury Strokeplay to be held at Waitikiri Golf Club this weekend. It should be an interesting tournament with many new faces in the field from other South Island Districts. Most are attracted by the House of Travel Tour prizes on offer across the Canterbury, Otago and Southland Strokeplays.
The Men's Open field is lead by defending champ Southland Rep Scott Hellier, and a host of other provincial reps. It is unfortunate that Canterbury's Tom Parker could not play as he is currently competing at the Australian Amateur Championship near Perth. Hiroki Miya will also be in Australia playing the Avondale Amateur in Sydney. However Canterbury teammates Dominic Brettkelly, Reid Hilton and Richard Reed are all playing. Other Southland players include Matt Tautari, Liam Hewitt, Doug Carmichael, Liam Balneaves and Jeremy Hall. There is a strong contingent from Otago - Fraser Maclachlan, Ryan Bellamy, Duncan Croudis, Joseph Hancock, Kyle Clark, Matthew Crawford, Daniel Arneson, Blake Mason, and Jacob Bellamy are among the contenders. Dan Laughton, Sam Purdon, Kazuma Kobori, and former champ Nic Kay will also add to the mix in a strong field. The handicap index cut-off to make the field was 4.4.
In the Women's Open field interest will centre around defending champ young Jeonghyun Lee, and Canterbury Reps Juliana Hung, Hillary O'Connor, Olive Tapu, Maddie May, Amy Weng and Jess Crosbie. There are three Harewood players in the field that are based at the Pacific Golf Academy. Jin Young Hong on a +4.5 handicap, Roun Lee on a +3.7 and Chae Won Park on 0.2 handicap. It is unfortunate that Amelia Garvey could not play as she is off to the USA to start a university scholarship next week. Outside interest will centre around Vivian Lu (Royal Auckland), Danielle Bailey and Sumin Kang from Queenstown, Angela Gerken (Invercargill), Abigael Crawford (St Clair), Annabel Evans (Otago Golf Club) and Lizzie Neale (Nelson Golf Club).
The Men's Masters field is lead by defending champ Robbie Bell from Ashburton. He will be challenged hard by Aaron Forsyth on his home course, and Blair Dibley (Harewood), James Robb (Templeton), and Jeremy Goodman (Rangiora). Former NZ Seniors Rep Ian Donaldson on his home course adds to the mix.
In the Women's Masters 2017 Champ Ginny Bolderston cannot play due to another engagement. Invercargill's Robyn Pullar has a clear handicap advantage over the rest of the field, which are led by Kim Moggach (Waitkiiri), Lynda Brown (St Andrews), and Cheryl Kemp (Waitikiri).
Play starts at 8am tomorrow with the weather forecast to be hot and fine all weekend. Click here to view the draw.
Daily results and updates will be posted on this website. It should be a great weekend of golfing action!
