Elite professional golf has expanded in New Zealand. For the first time in years, three major Australasian Tour events have been scheduled on consecutive weeks across the pond. Creating an epic Kiwi swing that professional golf in NZ has been longing for.
Last week, the NZ PGA Championship was held at Paraparaumu Beach, proving an overwhelming success. And the ISPS Handa Japan Australasia at Royal Auckland follows this week’s New Zealand Open.
Millbrook Resort anchors the second week of the Kiwi swing. Played beneath the Remarkables Mountain Range, this Alpine course has long been New Zealand’s premier Open venue.
Australia’s Ryan Peake returns to defend his title after last year’s story-of-the-year victory.
Queenstown is a tourism hotspot, and the New Zealand Open has become an event people travel to. It always boasts a quality field in a scenic extravaganza, and entry is free for spectators – a massive credit to Michael Glading, Tournament Director, and his team for making this an event for all.
Glading says the organisers and club have invested heavily in the on-site experience in recent years, transforming Millbrook into a festival atmosphere.
“We built it to become a real community event, and it’s on people’s calendars now,” Glading tells Golf Australia magazine.
He describes families streaming in, many without a prior love of golf, drawn by clinics, entertainment and food zones.
The NZ Open is the only national Open to adopt the Pro-Am format. Though sometimes contentious, it is critical to the event’s inviting purse. The organisers have created a dynamic that works exceptionally well. Over 150 amateurs each bring families and friends, automatically creating a built-in community. As Glading notes, with “156 amateurs, a lot of those people have wives, family, friends, relatives who have a vested interest in how they are doing. That builds a little community.”
From a playing perspective, Millbrook delivers a genuine championship test. The course measures around 7000m, with challenging greens and strategic bunkering, but above all, it rewards ball-striking.
Given the global schedule, the NZ Open may be minus some stars. Ryan Fox will again miss the event, much to his own disappointment. However, Fox's compatriot, Daniel Hillier, will be the highest-ranked player in the field (100). Glading says the Open is great because it often showcases players on the cusp of world-class status, which is what Hillier certainly is, narrowly missing his ticket to the PGA Tour last year via the DP World Tour's Race to Dubai rankings. The Wellingtonian has started the season strong and is poised to make the jump this season.
“We get players like Tom Kim, Sung-jae Im, even Cam Smith, who play before reaching the pinnacle. That is always exciting for us. We like to think we’ll have some good young players who will break through.
“Cam Davis also played just after turning pro. The major benefit of golf is that the strength of the field goes so deep.
"If you run a tennis tournament and need to fill it with players outside the top 100, it’s hard to create excitement. But in golf, you can go down to 700 and still have players good enough to win at the world level. Look at Ryan Peake last year,” Glading adds.
“We built it to become a real community event, and it’s on people’s calendars now." - NZ Open Tournament Director Michael Glading.
With the Open as the marquee event in Queenstown, plans for 2026 include an even grander finish. New viewing areas and hospitality decks are being built around the 18th green, creating arena-style grandstands.
The course routing has also been streamlined so spectators can easily walk from the central “Hive” gathering area to any hole. By anchoring the crowd to a single festival hub, people can fan out short distances to all 18 holes. “From there, you can literally get to any one of the 18 holes with not too long a walk,” Glading explains.
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