3 LISTENER FEBRUARY 29 2020
T
he most exciting new
name in Kiwi golf
has a theory about
his first New Zealand
Open.
Denzel Ieremia missed the cut
in his debut at our premier golf
tournament last year. The then
23-year-old from the Waikato
missed by a mile, too, by what
might be thought was a confidence-
crushing seven strokes. But he
firmly believes if he hadn’t made
such an indifferent showing at the
100th New Zealand Open – with
his family and his coach watch-
ing – the rest of his rookie year as a
professional might have been very
different indeed.
“I honestly believe,” he says
earnestly, “that if I hadn’t missed
the cut there, I would not haveperformed as well throughout the
rest of the season.”
He learnt, he says, much in that
one week. It helped him figure out
what to do in preparation for tour-
naments, and then what he should
do throughout a tournament week.
His failure at the Open helped him
create a formula for success, he
believes.
“It really helped me narrow
down the things I need to do, and
for the rest of the year I worked on
that. In a way, missing the cut at
the New Zealand Open made it one
of the best weeks of the year.”
The remainder of his 2019
certainly proves his point. He made
the cut for the rest of his first pro-
fessional year – nine straight events- and had five top-10 finishes and
was in the top 25 in two starts on
the Korn Ferry Tour, a develop-
mental feeder for the US PGA Tour.
Importantly, too, within weeks
of the New Zealand Open, he’d
won his first significant purse –
NZ$135,000 – after finishing fourth
at the Asia Pacific Diamond Cup in
Japan, a result that took the finan-
cial burden off his parents.
However, it was his performance
at the Australian Open in early
December that announced to the
golfing world the new Kiwi kid on
the fairways was a serious con-
tender. He was close to the lead
all week, was tied for second place
after the second round and, in the
strongest field he faced last year,
went on to finish in a tie for fifth,
earning another NZ$60,000.
“It was a really cool first year,” he
says. “I learnt a lot and had a littleTHE 101st NEW ZEALAND OPEN
NZ golf ’s
hottest
new name
Missing the cut by a mile last
year helped Denzel Ieremia
create a formula for success.
Impressive
sporting pedigree:
Denzel Ieremia.“It was a
really cool
first year.
I learnt
a lot and
had a little
success,
which was
great.”