Hastings Open to put Hawke’s Bay on the professional golf map

We’re not quite at the ‘party hole’ stage just yet, but it’s not far off.

The Hastings Golf Club has finalized a four-year deal to host the first Charles Tour professional event of every season.

To be known as the Wallace Development Hastings Open, the next iterations of this storied amateur tournament will be rather different from their predecessors.

The purse for the professional players in the January 26-29 event will be $50,000 for 2023, and has the potential to rise to six figures in the future.

Elite and recreational male and female amateurs will still make up a good portion of the 128-strong field, but – in being the opening Charles Tour event of the year – there is an expectation that a smattering of New Zealand’s better professionals will take part as well.

With prize money and profile comes public interest, and the club will be working hard to accommodate that.

“We haven’t got the party hole, but we’ve got four years, so the ideas can manifest over time,” Hastings Golf Club professional Brett Allan said.

“It would be great to have a DJ on the 16th hole and a stack of grandstands, and people sitting up there watching the 15th and 16th and players teeing off on 17. It’s just [figuring out] how that will work – but there will be some grandstands out there.”

Gone are the days of simply saying a tournament is on and waiting for the inevitable complaints from members who find they can’t get a tee time.

For Allan and the club, this is about bringing the entire Hawke’s Bay golf community together. Be they interested in playing, simply following a couple of groups or enjoying the hospitality area adjacent to the 18th green, Allan wants the Hastings Open to be a unifying force.

Part of that includes his spin on successful overseas events such as the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Dunhill Links.

Those tournaments feature weekend golfers playing alongside professionals across the full four days of the tournament – provided they make the cut.

Allan’s idea is that the handicap golfers will come onboard at Hastings after the 36-hole cut. Those professionals and elite amateurs who’ve made the cut will be paired with a club golfer for a separate best-ball Stableford competition over the final two days.

That means a new trophy and prize money for the 72-hole stroke play professional winner, the traditional Hastings Open trophy for the leading amateur and then prizes for the team competition.

“You want engagement with the members and to provide an experience. And it doesn’t have to be a local member – any affiliate golfer in the country can play,” said Allan.

Not all of the participants will stay in paid accommodation, but many will. So, again, it’s about bringing people to Hawke’s Bay, selling its credentials as a golfing destination and adding something to the economy.

The club could not have done it without the support of Jonathan Wallace of Wallace Development, and Matt McDowell from Bayswater Vehicles. Below them, several legacy sponsors are now onboard for the full four years.

“I’m rapt to get it over the line and create the corporate partnerships and relationships, and to build something for Hawke’s Bay. It’s exciting to provide something different for the club and the players,” Allan said.