Fourteen long years for New Zealand golf fans came to an end when Michael Hendry won a playoff to win the New Zealand Open at Arrowtown in Otago.
Hendry became the first New Zealander to win this country’s national open since Mahal Pearce won the event at Middlemore in Auckland in 2003.
That fact was not lost by Hendry when he spoke after the win in the tournament sponsored by ISPS Handa.
“I was dead-keen to win the trophy,’’ Hendry said.
``And obviously the New Zealand golfing public and golf fans around New Zealand are going to be pretty chuffed that a Kiwi has finally won it. I’m going to be chuffed that that Kiwi happened to be me.”
Hendry, from Auckland, had to survive a playoff against Ben Campbell from Wairarapa and Brad Kennedy of Australia.
Campbell and Kennedy, the tournament’s 2011 winner, both scored birdies on the par five 17th hole to enable them to finish in a tie with Hendry at 19-under par.
The playoff went to the par three 18th hole of the Millbrook Resort course and Hendry, first to play, hit his tee shot to within 5m. Kennedy and Campbell followed but virtually handed victory to Hendry when they both pulled their tee shots into the water that surrounds the green.
While the previous three rounds were played in idyllic conditions at The Hills and Millbrook Resort courses, the final day was cool and windy with morning rain that made for a challenging day.
Hendry produced a remarkable effort, hitting 17 greens in regulation on the way to an outstanding two-under par round of 69. He edged into the lead on the 10th hole and was never headed, although required the playoff to become the 98th winner of the Brodie Breeze Trophy.
“This is the one I wanted the most of any trophy and I’ve got it now,” said Hendry, who is also a winner of New Zealand’s other main golf tournament the NZ PGA Championship.
“I think for most of the Kiwis in the field – if it’s not one of the four (major championships), it’s this one. To have the New Zealand Open trophy and have my name on the NZ PGA trophy as well, it’s pretty sweet.
“Once it had been decided that there was going to be a playoff I felt pretty comfortable. Seventy two holes are over and I was thinking to myself, just a few more shots.
Hendry said his back-to-back eagles at the end of his round on the Saturday were the key to his victory.
“That was the winning of the tournament this week. They gave me the opportunity to execute the game plan that I wanted today. Right then and there was when I won the golf tournament.”
Meanwhile, Campbell, beaten in a playoff at the NZ PGA Championship in Palmerston North the previous week, was again in a share of second, but it was rich reward for a young man who has fought back from debilitating injuries that has thwarted a promising career.
Campbell said: “It’s been amazing how much support I’ve had this week from back home. I’ve had that many messages I haven’t been able to reply to all of them yet.
“It was great having all that support out there this week and the crowds cheering me on definitely helped.
“My game’s been getting better and better. It’s been great working down here with John Griffin and all the support I have down here with sponsors and that sort of thing as well.”
Kennedy was steady throughout, recovering from a double bogey on the first hole to shoot a par 71.
Australian Deyen Lawson enjoyed an excellent tournament in fourth on 18-under, a shot ahead of compatriot Jack Wilson.
Five players shared sixth place on 16-under including New Zealand’s Ryan Fox, who shot 11-under par on the weekend sparked by his remarkable 63 on Saturday. He shared this slot with defending champion Matthew Griffin, the 2014 winner Dimitrios Papadatos, and fellow Australians James Nitties and Andrew Dodt.
There was also rich reward for Hawke’s Bay professional Daniel Pearce who shot four-under 67 on the last day to finish alone in 11th place on 15-under par, his best return at his national championship.
The par five 10th proved a turning point with Hendry producing a coaching manual bunker shot to promote himself to the top of the leaderboard. In the next group, Kennedy was also able to score, but Campbell recorded his second bogey of the day to drop to third.
Fox, with top caddie Steve Williams on his bag for the first time, started the day seven shots behind and was left with too much ground to make up, finishing tied for sixth.
“I really enjoyed the week with Steve and learned a lot. Anything under par today was going to be a good score, so I’m happy with that,” Fox said.
Nelson’s Ryan Chisnall collected the Bledisloe Cup as the tournament’s leading amateur, finishing at three-under in a share of 58th place.
NZ Open scores
Scores from the ISPS Handa New Zealand Open in Arrowtown last month were:-
par 71, 6362m Millbrook Resort [mb]; par 72, 6485m The Hills [TH]th
(a- denotes amateur):
266: Michael Hendry (NZ) 65th 65mb 67mb 69mb, Brad Kennedy (Aus) 65th 62mb 68mb 71mb, Ben Campbell (NZ) 61mb 67th 66mb 72mb. Hendry won in a playoff.
267: Deyen Lawson (Aus) 65th 66mb 68mb 68mb.
268: Jack Wilson (Aus) 70mb 65th 67mb 66mb.
269: Andrew Dodt (Aus) 69th 65mb 67mb 68mb, Ryan Fox (NZ) 68th 70mb 63mb 68mb, Matthew Griffin (Aus) 66th 67mb 66mb 70mb, James Nitties (Aus) 66mb 66th 66mb 71mb, Dimitrios Papadatos (Aus) 63mb 68th 66mb 72mb.
270: Daniel Pearce (NZ) 69th 65mb 69mb 67mb.
271: Brett Coletta (Aus) 69th 67mb 68mb 67mb, Young-Han Song (KOR) 66mb 68th 67mb 70mb, Sung-Jae Im (KOR) 66mb 65th 68mb 72mb.
272: Anthony Quayle (Aus) 69mb 69th 67mb 67mb, Jordan Zunic (Aus) 66mb 68th 70mb 68mb, Callan O’Reilly (Aus) 69th 64mb 70mb 69mb, I J Jang (KOR) 69mb 66th 67mb 70mb.
273: Nick Paez (USA) 68mb 69th 69mb 67mb, Darren Beck (Aus) 66th 72mb 67mb 68mb, Josh Geary (NZ) 65th 69mb 68mb 71mb, Michael Wright (Aus) 70mb 65th 67mb 71mb.
274: Jarryd Felton (Aus) 68th 70mb 68mb 68mb.
275: Tomohiro Umeyama (JPN) 69mb 66th 71mb 69mb, Toshinori Muto (JPN) 70th 67mb 69mb 69mb, Jung-Gon Hwang (KOR) 68mb 68th 68mb 71mb, Damien Jordan (Aus) 66mb 72th 66mb 71mb.
276: Neven Basic (Aus) 71th 65mb 69mb 71mb, Troy Moses (Aus) 68mb 71th 66mb 71mb, Brad Shilton (NZ) 64th 69mb 70mb 73mb, Peter Lonard (Aus) 69mb 67th 67mb 73mb.
277: Matthew Guyatt (Aus) 69mb 65th 72mb 71mb, Rhein Gibson (Aus) 69th 69mb 68mb 71mb, Matthew Millar (Aus) 69mb 67th 69mb 72mb, Gunn Charoenkul (A) 69mb 65th 69mb 74mb, Andrew Evans (Aus) 66mb 69th 66mb 76mb.
278: Aaron Wilkin (Aus) 66th 69mb 74mb 69mb, Luke Toomey (NZ) 66th 73mb 69mb 70mb, Nick Cullen (Aus) 69th 68mb 70mb 71mb, Harry Bateman (NZ) 69mb 69th 69mb 71mb, David Klein (GER) 66mb 72th 69mb 71mb, Steven Jeffress (Aus) 69th 70mb 67mb 72mb, Hyung-Sung Kim (KOR) 67mb 69th 69mb 73mb, Brendan Jones (Aus) 71th 68mb 65mb 74mb.
279: Mikumu Horikawa (JPN) 69mb 67th 73mb 70mb, Jin-ho Choi (KOR) 68mb 70th 70mb 71mb, Ashley Hall (Aus) 71mb 66th 69mb 73mb, Adam Bland (Aus) 68th 67mb 70mb 74mb, Michael Choi (Aus) 68mb 69th 67mb 75mb.
280: Scott Barr (Aus) 65th 71mb 75mb 69mb, Lincoln Tighe (Aus) 71th 65mb 75mb 69mb, Tatsuya Kodai (JPN) 68mb 71th 71mb 70mb, Adam Burdett (Aus) 66mb 70th 72mb 72mb, Jim Cusdin (NZ) 66mb 71th 71mb 72mb.
281: Heath Slocum (USA) 66mb 73th 72mb 70mb, Soon Sang Hong (KOR) 68mb 69th 70mb 74mb, Geoff Drakeford (Aus) 70th 69mb 66mb 76mb.
282: Ryan Chisnall (am, NZL) 67mb 68th 72mb 75mb, Brad Moules (Aus) 73th 66mb 67mb 76mb.
283: Nathan Green (Aus) 69th 70mb 71mb 73mb, Yoshitaka Takeya (JPN) 65mb 74th 69mb 75mb.
284: Simon Griffiths (ENG) 67th 72mb 73mb 72mb, Shaun Jones (NZ) 71th 67mb 69mb 77mb.
285: Danny Masrin (IDN) 68mb 70th 76mb 71mb, Dongmin Lee (KOR) 66mb 68th 76mb 75mb.
291: Shunsuke Sonoda (JPN) 70mb 69th 75mb 77mb.