By Neville Idour

The inaugural Briscoes Wairakei Invitational Pro-Am was a big winner on every count. 

Played at the beautiful Wairakei Sanctuary, north of Taupo, last month, it resulted in a runaway win for Ryan Fox and an estimated windfall of $250,000 injection for the Taupo economy. It was also, arguably, not only the first PGA event in New Zealand since the coronavirus lockdown with no restrictions and spectators allowed, but also probably the world.

Pacific Golf Management owner and the tournament promoter Richard Ellis would normally have been in Fiji during June running two tournaments there. 

“With covid-19 preventing us from going anywhere, everyone I spoke to said for goodness sake please try and get something good organised so we can play golf,” Ellis said.

“So here we had an event organised at warp speed at beautiful Wairakei in the middle of winter with a prize pool of $35,000 for the professionals.”

Amateurs whose entry fees contributed to that prizemoney competed for prizes worth $9000.

The interest in participating was outstanding and the event was a sellout in four days with 28 of New Zealand’s top professionals and 104 amateurs involved. There was even a waiting list.

So to the golf. Fox was in a class of his own and probably played one of the best three consecutive rounds of golf in his career with scores of 63, 66 and 63, a total of 24 under par. 

Fox rocketed out of the blocks with an eagle on the par five third hole, eight birdies, with just one bogey on the 13th. Four shots back after the first round was Luke Toomey with a tidy 67 while Gareth Paddison and Jordan Loof were tied third on 68.

In the second round Fox extended his lead by one with an excellent 66 after a slow start. He struggled to sink several makeable putts on the first eight holes, but caught fire on the final 10 holes with several birdies. 

“I played great again today,’’ Fox said after the second round. 

“Probably better than yesterday tee to green but didn’t take advantage till the final 10.”

Good weather conditions saw Daniel Hillier from Wellington charge up the leaderboard with a brilliant eight under 64, five behind Fox. The experienced Dongwoo Kang was two further back after a solid 66, Paddison slipped to fourth, one ahead of the improving Michael Hendry and Toomey struggled with a 71.

It was going to take a sensational third round for anyone to catch Fox and he was in no mood to allow anyone the opportunity.

Fox simply left the field for dust with another brilliant round of 63 to win by 13 shots. He mirrored his first round with an eagle and eight birdies, although he had to reset his mindset after a bogey at the short second hole. 

Fox was obviously a happy man afterwards. 

“It is so good to be back although I did have a few butterflies on the first tee in the first round,’’ Fox said. 

“It was quite outstanding the way Richard Ellis and the PGA got things together so quickly after going to level one (of the coronavirus situation).”

Paddison had the next best round of the final day, a 68, good enough for second, one ahead of Hendry who also scored 68. Hillier lost momentum with a battling 73 to finish fourth.

At the prizegiving Fox received a bonus to go with his winner’s purse. John Street from Lincoln Farms presented Fox with a 20 percent share in a standardbred pacer.

The event was such a success that it will become an annual event on the New Zealand PGA golf calendar and the dates for the next tournament will be announced soon.

TEAM RESULTS:

Teams stableford

Josh Geary (pro), Rod Duke, Tom Phillips, John Bowring.

Teams gross

Ryan Fox (pro), Gerard Peterson, Brad Heaven, Grant Smith.

Rick Harding won the 54 hole amateur gross.

Oliver Haydon won the 54 hole stableford.