It's the last year of the Hills New Zealand Open unless the NZ government comes to the party.

Nathan Burdon at The Southland Times writes, "Michael Hill is hoping to convince the Government to underwrite golf's New Zealand Open and keep it at The Hills, but that's news to Economic Development Minister Gerry Brownlee.

The jewellery magnate and golfing fanatic first hosted the event at his exclusive course on the outskirts of Arrowtown in 2007 and will hold the third and last of the current agreement with New Zealand Golf from January 28 to 31.

Mr Hill hopes to extend that arrangement, but said he could not continue to foot most of the bill by himself."

And this weekend's NZ golf news just got worse. Josh Geary and Gareth Paddison failed to gain entry to The Open at an international qualifying tournament in Melbourne. So it looks like they'll have to go further afield to qualify if they want to play at 'The Old Lady'.

Had to laugh at the latest John Daly incident.

Long John who's lost about 100 pounds in the last nine months received a sponsor's exemption to the Sony Open, so he agreed to host the pro-am party at a Honolulu hotel along with Rich Beem.

Come the night Daly and there was a a delay in Daly showing up.

Explaining his lateness, John said, "They wouldn't let me in...If I weighed 300 pounds and had four chins, I'd have no problem getting in. No one recognized me."

Good News for golfers going to Scotland and Royal Dornoch in particular.

Colin Farquharson spreads the news that, "Royal Golf Hotel, Dornoch re-opens on April 1"

"The Royal Golf Hotel, overlooking the first tee of Royal Dornoch Golf Club, will re-open on April 1. Its new owners have teamed up with Castle Stuart Golf Links who are assisting with pre opening and ongoing operations. Castle Stuart partner Grant Sword, whose family owned and operated the Royal Golf Hotel for many years, is spearheading the pre-opening works and preparations.

The hotel will offer 22 four-star bedrooms, cosy log fires, a golfers’ bar, plus informal wining and dining in the conservatory overlooking the first tee."

There's not a lot of great accomodation at Dornoch, so be quick if you're lucky enough to be heading up that way this summer.

I know this post is meant to be about Golf in Godzone but there's not a lot of current (good) news about NZ Golf. So here's a wee bit more about Golf in Scotland.

And should be of great interest to Kiwi amateur golfers planning to play in well-known Scottish amateur events.

From personal experience the Craw’s Nest Tassie at Carnoustie is one of the best. How good is it?

This again from Colin Farquharson

"The Carnoustie Golf Links Management Committee has confirmed that all 338 places in the 2010 Craw’s Nest Tassie were snapped up within five minutes of the competition’s online application system going live at 5pm on Monday, January 11.

The CGLMC received the first entry for the 2010 tournament 30 seconds after the online system was activated and exactly 4min 57sec later the complete allocation of places was filled."

Less than 5 minutes and there was a full field-You have been warned if you are planning to play in well-known Scottish amateur events.

Guid gowfin at the weekend

Slainte

Stan

PS

Here's the link to Colin's excellent Scottish Golf View

www.scottishgolfview.com/