Christchurch professional Tony Christie has come out of the golfing wilderness to qualify for this week's New Zealand Open in Queenstown.
Christie (44), who is the golf professional at the Laucala Resort in Fiji, where he mixes with many celebrities, carded a four-under-par 67 yesterday to share the honours at Omaha Beach Golf Club with South Korean pro Dongwoo Kang.
He was one of five players from the 39-strong field to qualify for the $900,000 event, which will be staged this week in Queenstown from Thursday to Sunday.
Fijian professional Vikrant Chandra and Auckland professional Marcus Wheelhouse both carded rounds of three-under-par 68 to secure their spots and the fifth and final place went to Bay of Plenty professional Kieran Muir, who won in sudden death from three players.
The final qualifying event is to be staged at the Cromwell Golf Club today, with the final five places in the 132-strong field up for grabs.
Christie, who is a three-time former champion of the Omaha Beach Pro-Am, showed his experience yesterday on the course, which is near Warkworth.
''I came home with very little expectation, to be honest. I haven't played any competitive golf for the past five or six years but today it all fell into place,'' he said.
A change in mindset heading into yesterday's one-round shootout helped him immensely.
''I woke up this morning and I said to myself: `I expect to play well and I expect to be going to Queenstown.'
''I kept really positive and it worked.''
Christie got off to a slow start. He was one over par through eight holes before making four birdies in five holes to turn things around.
While Christie was feeling the nerves, so, too, were four other players - Muir, amateur Charlie Hillier, Peter Lee and Leighton James - who tied for fifth place and headed to a playoff for qualifying.
Muir advanced when he made a 1.5m putt on the first playoff hole, the first at Omaha Beach, while all three of the other players missed the green and failed to get up and down.
Meanwhile, Dunedin company Animation Research Ltd has helped organise a live stream of the final couple of days' golf.
The coverage will be of holes 15, 17 and 18 on Saturday and Sunday, with a review show being streamed at 4.30pm on the first two days of the open.
It was too expensive for the organisers to arrange television broadcast coverage but, after discussions last week, Animation Research Ltd has come to the party.
Tournament director Michael Glading said the costs associated with producing a live television broadcast for golf were well documented and this had resulted in past New Zealand Opens running at significant financial losses.
The streaming will be on www.nzopen.co.nz.
