Almost lost amid the excitement of Aussie Ryan Peake’s victory in the New Zealand Open golf tournament at Arrowtown’s Millbrook Resort last Sunday — with its amazing jail-bird turned birdie-slayer back story — was the announcement the venue would be hosting at least the next seven Opens, through to 2032.
Under the existing agreement, Millbrook — which has now solely hosted three Opens after co-hosting the previous seven with The Hills across the road — had been due to host just the next two editions.
However, ops director Brian Howie says Golf NZ, Millbrook and Millbrook Tournaments Ltd, which runs the event for Golf NZ, "were very happy with the way things were going and we’d been talking about just giving, I guess, a bit of certainty".
"And obviously Millbrook [which underwrites the Open] was very committed to it, I think Golf NZ is very happy with the way the tournament is being managed on their behalf, and we thought [Sunday’s prizegiving] would be a good time to announce that extension up to 2032.
"I think it gives everybody a bit of certainty and a bit of clarity that the tournament is going to be kept in Queenstown and at Millbrook."
Howie says he’s also happy with plans to add a third course to Millbrook’s two courses in the next few years.
"That just brings a different dimension to the tournament, and it would be great for the region as a whole to have another course.
"It just means Queenstown is very much seen as a premier golfing destination."
NZ golfing legend Sir Bob Charles, who designed Millbrook’s original course, says the seven-year deal means Millbrook’s "getting a lot like the [US Masters], I suppose, where that’s a permanent fixture at Augusta National".
Meanwhile, Howie understands Speargrass Flat neighbours Brian Cartmell and Nathan Branch, whose X-Ray Trust Ltd lost a High Court judicial review challenging a Queenstown council consent for Millbrook to host the Open, have lodged an appeal.
"The judge [in January] said he wanted to give some clarity in advance of the Open being played so he gave that decision, but he didn’t at that point give the reason for his decision.
"But my understanding is there has been an appeal put in even before the reasoning has been announced.
"We’re not in control of that — as I say, we were happy with the decision that said the consent process had been robust and we’d followed the process, so we’ll just move on."
