The New Zealand PGA Championship is a
golf tournament on the
PGA Tour of Australasia. It is currently known for sponsorship reasons as the SEC NZ PGA Championship.
History
The tournament been played since 1909, with some gap periods. It was originally a
match play event and switched to
stroke play
Stroke play, also known as medal play, is a scoring system in the sport of golf in which the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 holes. In stroke play, the winner is the player who has taken the fewest strokes over the ...
in 1965.
Major championship winners who have claimed the New Zealand PGA title include
Sir Bob Charles,
Peter Thomson,
Kel Nagle
Kelvin David George Nagle AM (21 December 1920 – 29 January 2015) was an Australian professional golfer best known for winning The Open Championship in 1960. He won at least one tournament each year from 1949 to 1975.
Biography
Nagle was bor ...
, and
Tony Jacklin. The event is also notable for
Masashi Ozaki's lone international win.
Sponsorship problems caused the tournament to be terminated after the 1987 event. In 2002, a PGA Tour of Australasia and U.S.-based
Nationwide Tour
The Korn Ferry Tour is the developmental golf tour, tour for the U.S.-based PGA Tour, and features professional golfers who have either not yet reached the PGA Tour, or who have done so but then failed to win enough FedEx Cup points to stay at tha ...
co-sanctioned event, called the Holden Clearwater Classic was started at the Clearwater Resort in
Christchurch, New Zealand. It was played again in 2003 and in 2004 the event resumed the name New Zealand PGA Championship. Co-sanctioning with the Nationwide Tour ended after 2009. The event was not held in 2020 and was run in 2021 as a non-tour event.
[
]
Winners
The finals from 1909 to 1920 were played over 18 holes, except 1911.
Source:
References
External links
Coverage on the PGA Tour of Australasia's official site
{{Former Nationwide Tour Events
PGA Tour of Australasia events
Former Korn Ferry Tour events
Golf tournaments in New Zealand
Recurring sporting events established in 1920
1920 establishments in New Zealand