Columnist Peter Benton: Clearwater course offers test in New Zealand

Peter Benton

Wednesday, March 13, 2002 | 10:32 a.m.

Peter Benton's golf column appears Wednesday.

While visiting New Zealand recently, I toured the new Clearwater Resort in Christchurch, site of this week's Buy.com Tour event.

The field will encounter a beautiful course which will be virtually untouched. While members have been able to play the front side for six or seven months, the back nine has been slower to mature. In fact, by the time this PGA Tour-sanctioned event gets under way Thursday, the back nine will only have been open for a month.

This 7,150-yard, par-72 course built on 400 acres of what was previously a dairy farm will certainly not be a pushover. There are 37 total acres of lakes and the layout is crisscrossed by several streams and natural springs -- hence the name "Clearwater."

Fairways are narrow, greens are large and undulating and the strategically placed sand traps will no doubt cause headaches galore.

The Australasian Tour (Australia and New Zealand) has been happy to conduct joint ventures with both the European and Asian Tours for some years. The upside is that purses are bigger and TV exposure is guaranteed in the markets of the co-sanctioning partners. However, the downside is that the more lowly ranked members of the Australasian PGA Tour rarely got a start.

So now, after partnerships with Europe and Asia, the Australasian Tour joins forces with the richest organization in the game, the U.S. PGA Tour, through its second-tier Buy.com Tour.

The marriage will no doubt be a win-win. The Down Under Tour gets a pair of million dollar-plus events (last week's Jacob's Creek Classic in Adelaide and this week's Clearwater Classic in Christchurch). And the Buy.com Tour gets to expand into new parts of the world at a time of the year when not too many options exist for tournament venues here in the States.

The Holden Clearwater Classic will bring a new dimension to New Zealand golf.Peter Benton