The highest quality field ever assembeld will compete at the 2021 Smiths City Canterbury Strokeplay to be held at Clearwater Golf Club this weekend. Over 40 players were balloted out with a 3 handicap required to get into the Men's Championship field. It should be an interesting tournament with many new faces in the field from throughout New Zealand. Many are attracted by the House of Travel Tour prizes on offer across the Canterbury, Otago and Southland Stroke Plays, with the Canterbury Stroke Play being the last leg of the tour. Smiths City are also putting up two Sleepyhead Queen-sized beds valued at $3,500 each for the Men's and Women's champions.
The Men's Open field is full of provincial reps from throughout New Zealand. Notable names include Kerry Mountcastle, Jared Edwards, Ben Patson, Cameron Harlock, Cosmo Graham, Caerwyn Ross and sons of former greats Kahu Tataurangi (Phil Tataurangi), and Jack Turner (Greg Turner). Alot of focus will be on 14 year old Joshua Bai from Akarana Golf Club in Auckland playing off a +4.8 handicap and it will be interesting to see how he competes against his more seasoned rivals. Local hopes will rest with members of the champion Canterbury NZ Interprovincial team Kazuma Kobori, Mike Toeke, Zach May and Matt McLean.
In the Women's Open field Canterbury reps Maddie May and Amy Weng will face some stiff opposition from many out-of-towners including Sumin Kang, Aileen Du, Lizzie Neale, and Yoonae Jeong.
The Men's Masters field had to be balloted despite some players being lost to the NZ Seniors Championship being competed for at Christchurch Golf Club the same time. Canterbury reps Brett Turner and Jonathan Stieller will face some stern opposition from the likes of Freyberg reps Blair Franklin and Daniel Vesty.
The Women's Masters field is lead by defending champion Kim Moggach with the main challenges coming from players from Tasman and Southland.
All-in-all a great line-up for the 54 hole tournament starting 7.30am Saturday morning with 36 holes play, then 18 holes on Sunday morning, with the weather forecast to be warm and mostly fine.
The draw will be posted soon.
Daily results and updates will be posted on our website and Facebook. It should be a great weekend of golfing action!
