Feb 2023 and The PGA Tour and LPGA announced a new mixed-team event that will see men and women compete together in a co-sanctioned tournament.   The Grant Thornton Invitational will debut this December at Tiburon Golf Club and the Ritz-Carlton Naples in Florida. The event will consist of 16 PGA Tour and 16 LPGA players competing for a $4 million purse. 

This will be the first time the two circuits have come together for an event since the last iteration of the JC Penney Classic in 1999. The news comes after the Australian Open successfully held its men’s and women’s competitions simultaneously last December, with Adrian Meronk and Ashleigh Buhai winning the historic tournaments.

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And so onto our own New Zealand Mixed Foursomes - this year to be held in Wellington at the Boulcott's Farm Heritage Golf Club.  

Some history here - with the announcement on the 1 September 2010 the former Hutt Golf Club and Boulcott Golf Club would merge to form Boulcott’s Farm Heritage Golf Club.  The new course is close to 6,000 metres in length and when completed will be 6,300 metres. It has been built to Championship standard and is to be maintained to that level.

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The Hutt Golf Club dates back to June 1892 when a group of business and professional men established the first club in the North Island and the third in New Zealand. Since 1892 at the old Racing Club grounds, and then from 1908 at the current site, the Hutt Golf Club has made its mark on the Wellington golfing landscape. It has won many Premiership Interclub events and continued to stand out as one of the quality courses with facilities to match.  

 

Boulcott Golf Club was one of the Hutt Valley’s most well-loved sporting clubs, its members priding themselves on the friendly atmosphere and love of social occasions. In October 1937 the club had its beginnings when a group of local golfers, who up until that point had played on a “rough little track” on top of a riverbank, negotiated with a local landowner to lease an area of land which was then be developed into the nine-hole course.  In February 1938 the first annual general meeting was held. In 1950 the club had the chance to purchase the land and at a special general meeting on 20 July 1950 the 54 members attending bought the course.  The 1950s and 60s saw continued development on both the course along with the clubhouse construction.

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During 2008 and 2009, the Greater Wellington Regional Council confirmed its intentions to upgrade the stopbanks and both Clubs were approached for their input. Various alternative alignments were considered and both Clubs finally agreed to the current alignment. As a consequence, the merging of the two Clubs was pursued.  Boulcott’s Farm Heritage Golf Club is the consequence of that merger with both Clubs merging into the new entity on 1 September 2010.

 

With the construction of the stop bank, the GWRC undertook to reinstate the golf holes affected. As part of the agreement, 12 of the 18 holes of the new layout were constructed together with a 6 hole short course. The intent of the short course was to provide access to golf to the disabled and provide a facility where golfers could play a quick game. The construction with paved paths reflects that intent.

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