Three Kiwi professionals have won tournaments abroad, capping off a memorable weekend for golf in New Zealand.
Two Masterton golfers, Ben Campbell and Kerry Mountcastle, won maiden titles on the Asian Tour and PGA Tour of Australasia respectively, while Steve Alker won the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship on the PGA Tour Champions.
Campbell won the Hong Kong Open, his first Asian Tour title with back-to-back birdies to catch and surpass his playing partners, former Champion Golfer of the Year, Cameron Smith, and Phachara Khongwatmai, after not leading at any stage throughout the tournament.
Campbell began the final round in third, a shot behind his playing partners at 15-under following rounds of 66, 64, and 65 at Hong Kong Golf Club, and hung with the two leaders until the final couple of holes, where he pulled away. After a birdie at 17, the Queenstown-based professional was tied with Smith and Khongwatmai and drained a 15-foot birdie putt on the last for his maiden Asian Tour victory after Smith made par and Khongwatmai missed his 25-foot birdie attempt.
He told the Asian Tour that he’s ecstatic to get the job done.
“It’s good to finally get the monkey off the back. I was sort of just battling away all day,” said Campbell.
“I didn’t get off to the greatest of starts and swing wasn’t feeling that great. I went back to a few close losses and wrote a few notes down in my yardage book last night, and really used them on those last four or five holes.
“It was getting a bit tight in the swing and just from those past experiences I managed to put a couple of nice swings coming down the stretch which really helped.”
He closed with another 66 to finish at 19-under-par to move into fourth on the Asian Tour and International Series Order of Merits.
Campbell joins Frank Nobilo (1997) and Walter Godfrey (1972) as the only New Zealand winners of the Hong Kong Open.
Kerry Mountcastle also secured his maiden PGA Tour of Australasia victory at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship to sign off his 2023 PGA Tour Champions season.
The victory also saw him finish second in the season-long Schwab Cup standings which he won last year, finishing runner-up to Steve Stricker.
Alker began the final round at the season-ending event with a four-stroke lead after shooting 67, 64, and 65 to be 15-under at Phoenix Country Club. The 52-year-old was steady in today’s closing round, getting over the line with two birdies and a bogey to shoot 70 and win by a shot over Steven Ames and Ernie Els.
In Europe, Sam Jones is on track to secure his DP World Tour card, sharing 16th place at DP World Tour Q-School Final Stage in Spain at the tournament’s halfway point.
The Taranaki rookie professional has shot 69, 69, and 70 to be eight-under through three rounds with another three to go. The top 25 progress through to Europe’s main tour following the final stage of Q-School.
In South Africa, Daniel Hillier and Ryan Fox finished in the middle of the pack at the Nedbank Golf Challenge at Gary Player Country Club in Sun City.
Hillier shared 33rd place at one-under after rounds of 72, 68, 76, and 71, while Fox finished five shots further back after shooting 69, 76, 70, and 77.
Fox made tournament headlines early in the week after he played a hole in a South African rugby jersey after losing a bet with his South Africa caddy after the All Blacks fell to the Springboks in the Rugby World Cup final.
Finally, Lydia Ko finished in a tie for 31st at the LPGA Tour’s penultimate event of the 2023 season, The Annika.
Ko carded 67, 69, 67, and 70 to finish seven-under-par, 12 shots behind the winner, Lilia Vu.