2020-02-29 New Zealand Listener

FEBRUARY 29 2020 LISTENER 6

RIKUYA HOSHINO

One of the most exciting

young players on the Japan

Tour and sitting just outside

the top 100 in the world.

After turning pro in 2016,

the 23-year-old has already

had two impressive wins on the

Japan Tour and finished in the

top five at last year’s 100th New

Zealand Open.

CHAN KIM

The American of Korean extrac-

tion won the Japan Open in

2019, the most prestigious

event on the Japan Tour. He

is the tournament’s highest

ranked player (world No 61 at

the end of 2019) and his prodi-

gious length off the tee will be

something to watch. He has won

nearly NZ$4 million in Japan,

with four wins to date.

MIKUMU HORIK AWA

Played a massive 32 events on

the Japan, Asia and European

tours last year, picking up

his first win since turning

professional, at the JGTC Mori

Building Cup Shishido Hills. The

27-year-old missed the cut at the

100th New Zealand Open and

will be keen to make amends.

JOHN CATLIN

The 29-year-old American had

his best year in golf in 2018,

winning three times on the

Asian Tour and earning the

Asian Tour Players’ Player

of the Year Award. His best

performance yet was a win at the

Thailand Open last year.

KJ CHOI

The veteran South Korean has

had many professional wins,

including eight on the US

Tour, most recently the Play-

ers Championship in 2011. The

one-time world No 5 finished

in a tie for 17th at last year’s

100th New Zealand Open.

Top 5 Asian and Japan

tour players to watch

2014

The Open returns

to The Hills and

Millbrook. The

New Zealand

Pro-Am Cham-

pionship is

introduced.

2017

Kiwi Michael

Hendry

becomes

the first New

Zealander to

win the Open in

14 years.

I

t’s been a man’s world for

more than 100 years. But

not this year. For the first

time in its history, the New

Zealand Open features a

woman among the more than 150

professionals vying for the coun-

try’s most prestigious men’s golf

trophy.

Swede Pernilla Lindberg, a

10-year veteran of the LPGA and

Ladies European Tour, will join the

men on the Millbrook and The

Hills courses at the 101st Open.

She will be paired with All Black

Beauden Barrett, who is compet-

ing in the tournament’s Pro-Am

competition.

Lindberg and her husband, who

wed in Queenstown a year ago,

already had plans to be in the

region to mark their first anniver-

sary. But then a conversation with

Kiwi golf pro Phil Tataurangi sug-

gested she might combine business

with pleasure. “Her husband was

talking to Phil about their trip,”

says tournament director Michael

Glading. “Phil said, ‘You realise the

men’s open is on the week you’re in

Queenstown.’ She thought, ‘Wow,

that would be cool.’ Phil called me,

and I said, ‘Put me in touch.’ Like

all things in life, it’s who you know,

not what you know.”

Although it isn’t the first time

in world golf that a woman has

competed in a men’s competition,

the inclusion of Lindberg, who won

a LPGA major in 2018, has raised

eyebrows among more hidebound

elements of the media and golf.

“We live in a changing world,”

Glading says in response. “I’m not

suggesting this is a path we’ll neces-

sarily be embarking on, but in time

there will be tournaments with

men and women competing.”

Lindberg, meanwhile, has

declared her goal for the 101st New

Zealand Open: to “beat just one

man”. 

First

lady

Swedish star

breaks new

ground with

New Zealand

Open entry.

Swede Pernilla

Lindberg married

in Queenstown a

year ago; now she’s

back to compete

in the men’s New

Zealand Open.