Between the two there is no better way to illustrate the wide spectrum of sporting fans.
In February-March next year, Queenstown will host both varieties when the New Zealand PGA Championship starts at The Hills and the English cricket team stops over for a week to warm up for the test series.
The pro-amateur golf tournament, in its second year, coincides with England's four-day game against the New Zealand First XI, before they head to Dunedin to start their three-test series against the Black Caps.
Sir Ian has been a regular at the Dunhill golf Tournament at St Andrews and said he looked forward both to playing some golf and watching his national cricket side during the week.
"This is something I could not miss," he said.
Destination Queenstown's Jen Andrews said the two sporting events were guaranteed to attract two very different audiences and that would be great for Queenstown's profile.
"Its a great drawcard that's for sure. Certainly having two sporting events with high-profile people in charge, we expect it will attract visitors.""People certainly came to town this year," she said.
In Auckland yesterday, organisers of the pro-amateur golf tournament announced a $650,000 cash injection from the Government to help promote the event on a world stage.
Prime Minister John Key's announcement means an increase in the prize kitty from $500,000 to $600,000, which elevates the tournament to tier one status on the PGA Tour of Australasia.
The extra incentive is expected to attract a bigger international line-up than this year's field and the earlier date should tie in better with other world golf tournaments, especially in the Asia circuit.
Defending champion Michael Hendry has already confirmed his return as well as top Australian golfer Brendan Jones for the 2013 tournament.
Tournament director Michael Glading said they would be targeting top players from Asia.
American marketing consultant Raymond Roessel would help by talent-spotting in Asia leading up to February.
"Being a tier one tournament, that in itself will attract more players. There were one or two that didn't come last year and by stepping it up a level players will earn more world ranking points; that will be an attractor."
Organisers had "15-20 players" they would like to see at the tournament and would be approaching. However, many of them would not commit until December when their 2013 rosters had been decided.
Last year's standouts, Mark Brown, Ryan Fox and David Smail, have already been confirmed.
There was still a question mark over New Zealand's No 1 amateur female, Lydia Ko, as she was in the middle of her school examsNo further announcements had been made about celebrities for the tournament, although Mr Glading said the process to find them was well under way.
"There's a few in our sights, if you like. It's early days."
The tournament will be held from February 28 to March 3 and will host up to 144 professionals, plus a field of 68 amateurs including friends, sponsors and celebrities.
