Jennian Homes Waikato Winter Strokeplay

12th July 07

When tournament director Warren Collett opened last entries, his field had expanded to the largest ever for a Waikato Winter Strokeplay Championship.

120 entries are confirmed and the field is headed by Nick Gillespie, 19, now based at Hastings Golf Club at Bridge Pa.



Gillespie earlier this year won the NZGA's North Island Championship at Belmont, Wanganui, where he mostly learnt and progressed his golf.

His father Stuart, a two handicapper at Belmont encouraged his son into the game and with guidance from the professional there Peter Cassidy, Nick Gillespie's game has flourished.

His thirteen under par total in winning the North Island Classic may in part be attributed to his intimate knowledge of the course but the conditions were tough, yet he set a new course record 65 in the third round to move into contention.

But it was a tired Gillespie who was beaten convincingly by Rotorua's Danny Lee in the final
of the New Zealand Amateur at Hamilton. Gillespie had played
the North Island Amateur, and
the New Zealand Under 19 championships in consecutive
weekends, arriving at Hamilton's
St Andrews course late Saturday night to commence the NZ foursomes the next day. By the time he played the final he had played 21 rounds of championship golf in 17 days not taking into account extensive travel to far flung venues - a remarkable effort
on both his and Lee's part!

Since then he has moved to Hawkes Bay for employment at a driving range and is now receiving some tuition from Ross Morpeth, earlier coach/mentor of Grant Waite and Craig Perks when he was based at Manawatu.

Gillespie has warmed to the strong competition in the Bay and he regularly plays alongside rookie professional Doug Holloway. He has already set a new course record there at the Takapau course, a 63.

This will be the start of a busy period for the Manawatu Wanganui reserve at last years interprovincials culminating in two GTNZ events at Taranaki and Titirangi.

His one major drawback in the Waikato Winter Strokeplay is his lack of knowledge of the long course, set up in tournament condition and in particular how it plays mid winter. But with just one round per day for the first two rounds, that unfamiliarity should be overcome.

The entire expanded field will have a handicap assessment of four or below but had the same entry conditions as 2006 applied, the cut for entry would have been handicaps of 0.2 and below.
The players represent 47 different clubs from Gulf Harbour and Muriwai in the north to Timaru and Arrowtown in the south.
New Zealand representative players
Mark Smith(Springfield) a previous winner, James Davis (North Shore), and Rikki Kauika (Wanganui) add considerable depth
to the field.

Complete List of Players in the Field - click here

New Zealand Representatives entered:

Mark Smith, 26, Springfield, Bay of Plenty won the Waikato Winter Strokeplay in 2003.
Member of a NZ Southern Cross Cup winning team in South Africa.


James Davis, North Shore, 23
was an outstanding junior and represented New Zealand at Four Nations Cup before concentrating on graduating with a Business degree. Won
a Dunedin Strokeplay at St Clair but deserves one like this on his CV.