Tournament chairman John Hart said it had taken a real step up and was incredibly popular with both players and spectators.
He was delighted by the tournament and pleased the weather gods had played their part compared with what the rest of the country had experienced.
The tournament overall was getting a tremendous response from our sponsors, our amateurs and our professionals, he said.
``This is a real step up with the presentation of the tournament, based at Millbrook this year, and it had brought an exciting vibe.
``To me, I think the New Zealand Open has found its home. It is very hard to replicate this anywhere else in New Zealand. You couldn't do it in Auckland ... It is Queenstown that makes this.''
He quipped it would be in Queenstown for the next 100 years.
The plan was to switch head bases between The Hills and Millbrook in alternate years although discussions would continue.
Jack's Point was a consideration to come into the tournament and have three courses hosting the event but that would not happen immediately.
Hart said he was happy with spectator numbers which were up on last year. A final figure was not available but the event was driven by being broadcast right around the world.
That was the key to the government investment which wanted to advertise New Zealand in overseas markets.
``The government funding is a very important element of this tournament. Government fund it because they see the return they are getting in terms of the golf tourism market which is one of the huge growing markets in this country.''
The Government announced last week it was commiting $930,000 per year for the next three years to the tournament.
Hart said the Open - with $1million prize money - was very close to signing an agreement with the Asian Tour for co-sanctioning the event - it would then be co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour, Japan Tour and Australasian Tour.
There had been issues over the length of play because of the pro-am format but Hart said 95% of professionals accepted it.
He said if the Open went to a purely professional tournament, there would be a loss of sponsors, government investment and the loss of $1 million from amateur players.
Play was long - some rounds took more than six hours - but Hart said many pro-ams were that length.
He said getting a world top-10 player was simply not going to happen - ``we can't afford that and we are not going to do that''.
The quality of the field was high and many New Zealanders did not realise how good the field was with 11 players from the top 200.
``We have got the best of Australia and Asia outside the US. And moving to the Asian Tour we will get more of the top players.''
