The Otago Golf Club yesterday confirmed the City of Dunedin Legends Pro-Am would be held at the Balmacewen course from February 25 to 27.
Forty professionals aged 50 and over, including New Zealand great Sir Bob Charles, will be joined by 120 amateur golfers in a $30,000 event sanctioned by the Australasian PGA as part of its Legends Tour.
It will be the first professional golf tournament held in Dunedin since the Scenic Circle Hotels Classic at Chisholm Park in 2004.
Gordon Marr, the Otago Golf Club's general manager, and Bill Medder are organising the tournament, which arose following a discussion with Queenstown seniors golfer Jim Lapsley earlier this year.
"We got in touch with the PGA and it just grew from there," Marr said.
"We've got a three-year deal. The first one is a bit of a tester and we hope it will get bigger and better every year."
Six individual members of the Otago Golf Club are underwriting the purse, and six of the 18 holes have already been snapped up by sponsors.
The Dunedin City Council has also been approached for funding.
Dunedin clubs were invited to Balmacewen to discuss the tournament last night and the organisers are eager to see the event embraced by everyone.
"We see this very much as a community event," Marr said.
"We've been given an opportunity to create something special for Dunedin. It's a fantastic opportunity to host top professionals and to build the image of Dunedin as a golfing destination."
Marr said a group of Wellington golfers had already heard about the Legends tournament and been in touch to express interest in taking part.
Each of the eight other clubs in Dunedin will have the right to enter teams, but will have a limited time to confirm entries.
The handicap limit is 24, and entry fee is $1200 a team.
Major sponsors will also enter teams, and organisers expect the field will be filled.
The tournament will be played over 36 holes, with the two best net scores counting on each hole.
The professionals will split the purse, and the top five amateurs will get "significant" prizes.
Charles will obviously be the main drawcard but the pro-am should also attract plenty of top professionals.
Lapsley, presently ninth on the Legends Tour's Order of Merit, will be the main local chance, and organisers also hope long-time European Tour player Peter Fowler, who turned 50 in June, will enter.
Australia's Rodger Davis and New Zealand's Simon Owen, who tied for second at the British Open in 1987 and 1978 respectively, could be other high-profile contenders.
A feature of the tournament will be the involvement of junior golfers the day before the tournament starts at a Sport Otago-organised coaching clinic.
Organisers have nominated the Otago Community Hospice as the charity to benefit from the tournament, and are hoping to raise $20,000.
The pro-am will join the New Zealand Open at The Hills (January 28-31), the South Island men's and women's strokeplay at St Clair (February 11-14) and the national age group and collegiate championships at Balmacewen (September) in a bumper year for Otago golf.
