Tae Koh, a 19-year-old Aucklander, announced his arrival on the golf scene with a stunning win in the final of the Australian amateur on Sunday night.
Koh, from the Manukau club, thumped West Australian Curtis Luck 6 and 5 at The Grange in Adelaide.
The temptation for organisers of the New Zealand Open must now be to give the youngster a chance in the $900,000 tournament, and director Michael Glading acknowledged it was ''a possibility''.
''He would have to get a tournament invite, and we've only got a very limited number of those,'' Glading told the Otago Daily Times yesterday.
''But he is somebody we'd look at very closely. That was an incredible performance.''
Glading said open invitations could not be confirmed until after the cut-off point for professional entries, about February 10.
The most prominent invitation issued so far has been to star signing Rocco Mediate, the six-time PGA Tour winner.
There was hope New Zealand superstar Lydia Ko would have been able to return to The Hills, which hosts the Open for the first time since 2010, and has Millbrook as a co-host, but she has LPGA commitments.
''Lydia is playing in Singapore that week, so unfortunately she's definitely out,'' Glading said.
The new Koh, who has never won a national title in New Zealand, became the first New Zealander to win the Australian amateur since Michael Campbell won in 1992.
''Obviously, he is a major champion and a great player and it would be great to follow in his footsteps with my career. It is an honour to win this event after him,'' Koh said.
Koh is only the third New Zealander to have won the Australian amateur after C.E.S. Gillies in 1899 and Campbell.
