It is unfortunate to mix sporting analogies but you have to think New Zealand Golf has really dropped the ball on this one.
The soap opera is, mercifully, over.
Flat, featureless Clearwater will host the next three New Zealand Opens.
All The Hills did to deserve the divorce was provide the best fan experience in the history of golf in this country, and help rescue a moribund event.
A toothless national body has effectively eroded all the goodwill the Open had regained after its black period in the early-2000s, when financial lunacy and public apathy nearly killed the tournament.
A bloke once lectured me on the folly of criticising NZG for its role in this drawn-out affair.
He argued the national body deserved some slack because arranging a golf tournament was difficult, because outside factors like the economy and co-sanctioning agreements played a massive role, and because (he claimed) The Hills owner Michael Hill had not fronted with as much money as everybody assumed.
But I'm not sure NZG has emerged from this saga without some egg on its face.
Why has it taken over a year to (a) capitalise on the serious momentum created by back-to-back-to-back Opens at The Hills, and (b) make a clear-cut decision on which course was going to host the tournament in 2011 and beyond?
Facts are in short supply, but I believe this is what happened:
• Michael Hill and Open promoter Bob Tuohy became at odds with the future of the event and each other's role in it.
• NZG told Tuohy to look for a possible new venue.
• Tuohy settled on Clearwater and pencilled in the last week of January 2011 (the ODT revealed this in July last year).
• The Nationwide Tour pulled out because it could not justify coming this far for just one tournament.
• The Christchurch City Council, a major backer of the relocated Open, got the jitters (no pun intended) after the massive earthquake.
• Tuohy and NZG decided to keep the venue but realised they needed another major sponsor, and the Open needed to go back to December to fit in with the major Australian tournaments.
• BMW came aboard as the major sponsor.
Tuohy, it must be said, has always praised The Hills for its role in hosting the Open, at the same time as he has pointed out it is an expensive venue and he doubted the staff there could run the tournament on their own.
And there is a fair argument that a national tournament like the Open is better when shifted around various courses.
But what message have the NZG fish heads sent to the thousands of fans who flocked to The Hills year after year? Or to the volunteers, some of whom came from as far afield as Auckland?Their dithering -and their treatment of The Hills - has disenfranchised a lot of good golf people.
Now the big question - what does Michael Hill do now?Having famously talked of his dream of making The Hills "New Zealand's answer to Augusta", he might look for another tournament to make his own.
I would not be surprised if the New Zealand PGA, which has recently been based at Clearwater and now has no major status, looks at forging a link with The Hills.
Or will Hill consider selling a couple of his stores to bring golfing greats like Tom Watson or Jack Nicklaus down here for a made-for-television tournament?Perhaps Hill will decide he has had quite enough of major golf.
And, given the role the man played in resuscitating the New Zealand Open, that would be very sad.
