Golf: Hendry chasing history

Michael Hendry
Michael Hendry
New Zealand's Michael Hendry is chasing a slice of history this week with the aim of becoming the first player to win three consecutive NZ PGA Championships since Australia's Kel Nagle in the 1970s.

Hendry is among a strong field at Auckland's Remuera Golf Club that also includes New Zealand No 1 Ryan Fox, Mark Brown, Josh Geary, Gareth Paddison, David Smail and Grant Moorhead and a bevvy of Australians including Peter Fowler and Peter Lonard.

The event is one of two golf tournaments making up the New Zealand leg of the PGA Tour of Australasia - the other being the New Zealand Open. The event has a long history dating back to 1920, and previous winners have included Peter Thomson, Nagle, Tony Jacklin, Sir Bob Charles, Frank Nobilo and Greg Turner.

Andrew Shaw won four straight from 1931-1934 and Nagle, who died in January aged 94, won the event in 1973, 74 and 75.

"It would be awesome [to win again]," said Hendry, who won the tournament when it was played at The Hills in 2012 and 2013 before it took a year's hiatus. "I am working towards some goals and I am pretty happy with where I am at in the journey towards those goals, in terms of where I want my game to be.

"It would be great to really have that form kick in and take another one away this week."

A prize purse of $125,000 is up for grabs, with the winner also receiving official world golf ranking points and becoming fully exempt on to the PGA Tour of Australasia for the remainder of this season plus a further two years.

Interestingly, Hendry has never played at Remuera even though he lives in Auckland.

"But at the end of the day it's just like any other golf tournament where you turn up and don't particularly know the course," he said. "Sometimes that is an advantage because you don't see the trouble, which other people do if they have played lots of times."

Fox recently recorded his second victory on the PGA Tour of Australasia by winning last month's Queensland PGA Championship to climb the world rankings to 203 and become the country's top-ranked male player.

He's presently 204 but ranked higher than all three Kiwis playing on the lucrative PGA Tour - Danny Lee is 233, Steven Alker 352 and Tim Wilkinson 404.

 

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