New Zealand Golf separates Stroke play from Match play events for National Amateur Championship
In an unprecedented move, the governing body of the sport in the country, New Zealand Golf, has decided to separate the Stroke play events from that of Match play events in its prestigious National Amateur Championship title. The move has come after the
decision by the authority to carry out a complete overhaul of the championship after 47 years.
Moving ahead with the decision, now both the formats will be held as separate, standalone events rather than Stroke play being categorized as the qualifying rounds leading to the Match play closing rounds.
NZG national tournament manager Dave Mangan shared some insight for the reasons behind the overhaul and regarded the length of the event as the key factor among them. The championship stretched to an unusually long eight days, which marred the viewership
as well as the interest of the general public in the event.
"With the New Zealand strokeplay now being a standalone event, it will grow to become a very prestigious title," said Mangan.
The championship initially started off as a Match play event since its inception in 1893 but was switched over to the dual format in 1963, keeping in view the growing popularity of the Stroke play format. The opening two rounds of the championship, both
male and female, are played under the Stroke play format where the top 36 players qualify to proceed to the final two rounds of the event which is played under the Match play format.
The NZG also decided to accord a separate status to the national foursomes titles, which were contested a day before the Stroke play event. The last episode of the event was played at Christchurch which stretched to a fatiguing eight days.
The 72-hole Stroke play event will be held at Hastings from March 29 to April 1 while the Match play event will be held at Mt. Maunganui on April 18-22. The Match play event will see through three days of qualifying before the main 36-hole event kicking
off afterwards.
"We are glad that Mt Maunganui and Matamata golf clubs have put their hand up to be the permanent hosts of the New Zealand foursomes," Mangan further added. "There is a lot of tradition in those events and we recognized that the Grant Clements Memorial and
Ruth Middleton are two of the most popular district events."
Earlier, much of the existing Stroke play event was overshadowed by the Match play event which followed later on and the suggestion to separate both events had been in circulation for quite some time.
The scenic Hastings course would prove to be just the appropriate choice to stage the first separate event of the championship. Hastings is also featured in several other events on the NZG circuit.
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