Kaikoura and PGA celebrate 20 years of an iconic event

The idyllic setting of the Kaikoura golf course at the foot of the Southern Alps

By Dominic Sainsbury
New Zealand PGA General Manager

Kaikoura will this month be staging the Hunting and Fishing Kaikoura Pro-Am for the 20th year.

With more than 40 teams and PGA professionals confirmed to play the event on September 26 and 27, it is sure to be a real celebration of all that is great about our game.

The Hunting and Fishing Kaikoura Pro-Am is the third stop on the PGA spring pro-am festival, which kicks off with the Nelson Pro-Am on Wednesday September 23.

The following day is the Whitehaven Wines Marlborough Golf Club Pro-Am in Blenheim before heading south to Kaikoura and then onto the Jennian Homes Charles Tour event, the DVS Open at the Pegasus Golf and Sports Club, north of Christchurch.

As a community Kaikoura has done it tough over the past few years with the 2016 earthquake shutting the town off to visitors for almost a year.

Kaikoura’s problems have been compounded this year with the coronavirus situation which has kept visitors away from this amazing part of Aotearoa. 

The good people from Kaikoura are resilient but even the most optimistic of us need positive events to lift our spirits and this event will certainly deliver, through bringing the community together for a weekend of fun, laughter, socialising and golf. 

Kaikoura means the eating of crayfish and along with having a great time on the golf course, after the first round players are treated to a seafood feast that would be the envy of any restaurant.

Dependent on the catch of the day, the menu could, for example, be crayfish, paua or blue cod.

While dinning out on a seafood feast, the highlights of the round are reviewed and tactics for the following day discussed with a PGA professional offering advice and insights to help the amateur players in the team in preparation for the following day. 

Often PGA professionals are seen spending time with their group on the range or short game area after the round, working on a part of the game that troubled the group during the round.

People make this tournament a huge success and it is one of the reasons why so many PGA professionals make the trip.

This year 2018 New Zealand Open champion Michael Hendry will be playing, along with in-form young professionals like Luke Toomey, Luke Brown, Ryan Chisnall, Jordan Loof, Daniel Hillier, Mark Hutson, Mason Lee and our seasoned professionals like Gareth Paddison, Keiran Muir, Harry Bateman, Martin Pettigrew, Peter Fowler and Dongwoo Kang. All players will be looking forward to catching up with old friends and making new ones at this year’s event.  

Kaikoura is where the mountains of the Southern Alps meet the sea and the golf course is set at the base of the mountains and only a few hundred metres from the ocean right on State Highway 1. It is a truly special place and one we are looking forward to.

Follow all the progress of the PGA Spring Pro-am Festival of golf at https://www.pga.org.nz/2019-season?ComeFromCat=873