Iconic venues for 102nd New Zealand Open regional qualifying confirmed

25 players will advance from Regional Qualifying held across the four venues simultaneously on Monday 28 February for their place in Final Qualifying, where a minimum of four players will advance. Final Qualifying will take place on Monday, 28 March 2022.

And if playing in the country’s national open isn’t enough, there is extra interest in the 102^nd New Zealand Open as the tournament has been included in The Open Qualifying Series. The top three finishers earn their paces in the 150^th Open Championship held at St. Andrews.

Golf New Zealand General Manager for Championships and Golf Operations Dave Mangan says the news should generate plenty of interest for Regional Qualifying.

“With the carrot of our New Zealand Open Championship being a qualifying event for the 150^th Open Championship at St. Andrews, we are expecting a great deal of interest in our own qualifying this year,”

“Once again, we have four iconic New Zealand golf courses hosting Regional Qualifying, and 25 successful players will get the chance to get one step closer to our 102^nd New Zealand Open Championship at Millbrook,”

“With at least four places in the New Zealand Open field available at Final Qualifying at Cromwell Golf Club, one player from qualifying may dare to dream of going all the way to St. Andrews. If not, it will still be pretty cool to tee it up at the New Zealand Open with the Claret Jug sitting on the first tee”

Players exempt from Regional Qualifying include the leading 50 professionals on the 2021 NZPGA Order of Merit, the top 10 amateurs on the Golf New Zealand Order of Merit, Full Playing tour members on the Australian PGA Order of Merit, and up to three amateurs at the discretion of Golf Australia.

Players exempt from Final Qualifying include the most recent New Zealand Amateur champion, the most recent New Zealand Men’s Amateur Stroke Play champion, three players at the discretion of Golf New Zealand, and one player at the discretion of Golf New Zealand and New Zealand Maori Golf.

Two years ago, the three players to advance from Final Qualifying were amateurs Jimmy Zheng, Adam Church and Matt McLean.