First Members Pro-Am at The Hills, Queenstown a "roaring success"

The first ever Members Pro-Am event at Queenstown’s renowned The Hills golf club has been deemed a “roaring success” by members.

One member loved it so much he anonymously donated an additional $30,000 to next year’s purse, making it a minimum $50,000 purse for 2016.

The Hills Golf Director Craig Palmer said he had wanted to run a Pro-Am at the private members club for some years, inspired by an event he plays in at the Royal Sydney Golf Club each year.

The event also follows on from the hugely successful pro-am format adopted by the New Zealand Open in recent years. 

“This year I was given the green light to organise our own members’ event here so I set about inviting my ‘dream list’ of professionals to play, and was absolutely humbled by the fact that they all said ‘yes’,” he said.

Eighteen professionals from New Zealand and Australia took part in the event, held over two days this weekend (December 19/20). Fifty-four lucky members joined the professionals for two days of spectacular golf. 


Daniel Pearce with his inaugural The Hills Pro-Am Trophy at The Hills golf course, Arrowtown. Photo courtesy of Southern PR

Melbourne-based Ashburton pro Daniel Pearce came out tops with two cracking rounds of 68 and 65, finishing 11-under on the tricky The Hills course. He took out the inaugural trophy and a $20,000 prize purse.

Te Anau golf pro David Klein, who finished third at the New Zealand Open at The Hills in 2014, finished six shots behind to come in second, and last year’s Open winner Jordan Zunic was just one behind in third.

“The event wasn’t PGA-sanctioned because of the restricted field but the PGA gave its approval for us to run the event,” said Palmer. “It was a very relaxed end-of-year celebration with many of the players bringing their partners and family and the pros enjoyed it as much as our members, who were absolutely stoked with how well the whole weekend went.

“In fact members were so delighted they gave Sir Michael Hill a standing ovation when he spoke at the presentation, and he had tears in his eyes.”

As well as organising the event, Palmer also played in it, coming in a creditable 11^th in a field which included big hitting golf names such as Brad Shilton, Josh Geary, Mark Brown, Peter O’Malley, Michael Hendry and more.

“It was a huge amount of work but well worth it, with members and pros loving the unique format which saw a public draw on the Friday night determining who played with who on Saturday, followed by a seeded draw on Sunday,” he said.

“Daniel was in stunning form with his final round including nine birdies. Sir Michael and his family have given him and his family an honorary membership at The Hills for a year, which means he has to come back and win it again next year to retain his membership!”