PaR nz Autumn Blog
Well our month of March literally ‘finished in the dark’! This week, the Rangiora Golf Club in Canterbury (yes home of Kozuma Koburi) played host to the 88th NZ Women’s Autumn Cup (previously the NZ Autumn Foursomes). On finals day, the Championship match between Rangiora locals Di Archer & Sandy Claxton and the Harewood pairing of Lynn Brand & Julie Jones was dramatically halved on the 18th and forced into playing extra holes. The problem - it was 7:00pm and darkness was looming real fast! Incredibly, the match remained halved on the 19th, 20th and 21st holes – all played in the dark with car headlights, I-phone torches and a small army of keen spotters and supporters. With a shot up her sleeve, Claxton managed to win the 22nd hole at 8:15pm and with Archer were awarded the NZ Autumn Cup in front of a cheering clubhouse crowd. Wow what a finish! Just like watching Rory McIlroy win the 2014 PGA Championship in the dark at the Valhalla Golf Club!
It was March Madness for the busy PaR nz Team. For the 2024 NZ Open, PaR nz Golfing Holidays was an official sponsor and we have renewed this for 2025. The NZ Open Team did a great job this year down at Millbrook creating a great vibe and we saw our first Japanese winner. PaR nz were giving away a place on our 2025 Grand Europe Golf Tour to the Pro-Am for the first hole in one. A prize with Business Class airfares worth $40,000. The designated hole was the #12 on the Millbrook Coronet Course – the hole proved to be a tough hole in the crosswind but a few balls ran dangerously close to winning the prize. At the NZ Open, PaR nz also ran a competition to win a place in our annual Mora Wines Millbrook Masters – this was won by Jerry Johnson from the Waipu GC. Well done Jerry - he will get to play and stay at the fabulous Millbrook Resort in November this year.
Winners of the Omokoroa Twilight Series on the 6th March were awarded major prizes sponsored by PaR nz – well done to the father & son team of Jeff & Jamie Warren! PaR nz has been a sponsor of the Omokoroa Golf Club in the Bay of Plenty for a number of years enjoying playing twilight each week and joining in great club spirit with sell out fields. Well done Pink and Jonathan the series organisers.
PaR nz was invited to play in the 2024 Ngāruawāhia 4BBB 11-12 March – we teamed up as a sponsor to add to our involvement. The Ngāruawāhia Ladies headed by Masters player Robyn Pellow, always turn out a good fun tournament and are themselves hugely supportive of women’s golf events, travelling around the country including the now infamous ‘in the dark’ Rangiora tournament. Winners of the Ngāruawāhia 4BBB were Alison Glover and new upcoming golfer Erin Newell.
Waving the kiwi flag on the international stage, Denise represented New Zealand and PaR nz at an IAGTO golf conference in Abu Dhabi which was attended by over 500 golf delegates. There is certainly strong interest from Europe and the USA for golfers to holiday in New Zealand with many new marquee courses in the World Top 100. Denise also got to check out how good Abu Dhabi was as a golf destination alongside Dubai and the verdict was – fabulous!
We continue to launch our tours for 2025 and they are selling like 'hotcakes'. Japan 2025 sold out, Canada 2025 sold out as is our Grand Europe 2025 tour – well place for a single if there is anyone keen to join us. South Africa 2025 is due for release this month with a new exciting programme including Victoria Falls – contact denise@parnz.co.nz to be on the early invite list. Just released is our Tour of Ireland including 2 days of full hospitality at The 153rd Open Royal Portrush. The Irish do it so well so this Open is shaping up to be huge just like in 2019 when Shane Lowry won The Claret Jug.
For our New Zealand tournaments - up next the 2024 Copthorne Bay of Islands 4 Course Classic 27 – 31 May 2024. For Fiji in August & September, the girls tournament and Mixed Teams Villa Challenge has a few places remaining. The Trinity Hill Hawkes Bay 4 Course Classic has just been released for 4-8 November, 2 places left for Tasmania in November and 6 places left for our 2024 Mora Wines Millbrook Masters 10-14 November.
Right now we are packing our bags as we are off early April hosting our first tour group to Japan then onto South Africa featuring Kruger National Park, Rovos Rail and so much more.
Follow the team on the PaR nz Facebook page as we attempt to play over 75 different courses in 2024.
Good luck on your picks for The Masters at Augusta coming up this weekend.
Cheers
Denise, Kim and Kristin