Yuki Miya, who was awarded the Bledisloe Cup as the tournament’s top amateur, held the joint lead after the first round.
Then, remarkably, the 20-year-old was the sole leader after 36 holes — Kiwi Daniel Hillier, one shot back, subsequently won the Open while Miya faded over the last two rounds to finish tied for 19th.
After moving to Queenstown in 2022, Guilford was head teaching pro at Arrowtown’s The Hills, Arrowtown Golf Club’s sole pro and coordinator for Futures Whakatipu, which was formerly the Wakatipu Junior Golf Club.
He also opened indoor Queenstown golf centre, Golf Federation, which he sold to Over The Top helicopter company owner Louisa ‘Choppy’ Patterson in ’24 — she renamed it The Club House.
Guilford, who was thrilled with Miya’s performance at Millbrook, is nowadays head pro at Christchurch’s Russley Golf Club.
‘‘When we were driving down, he had the expectations of only trying to make the cut, and I said, ‘mate, let’s just try and go as far as you can and let’s see if we can win it, you’ve literally got nothing to lose’.’’
Guilford says Miya was playing very well beforehand and had shot 66 at the Russley Open in terrible weather.
‘‘He was so good in the practice round that it was incredible, it wasn’t surprising in the first two rounds how he performed.
‘‘Dan Hillier only had awesome words to say to him afterwards, it was very encouraging words.’’
On the way back the pair, looking at the Bledisloe Cup, found Hillier had also won it in both 2016 and ’18. ‘‘We were just like, ‘holy moly, this is you in a few years, mate, just keep grinding’.’’
