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Victorian Andrew Martin has half an eye on the big picture as the New Zealand PGA Championship tees off at Gulf Harbour in Auckland on Thursday, with the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia coming to an exciting climax.
Martin is fourth in the Order Of Merit with three events to play, but one of those ahead of him – none other than Open Champion Cameron Smith – is not eligible for the exemptions that come for the leading players in the tour’s Order Of Merit, because he has played just two tournaments.
The minimum requirement is four, and that puts 38-year-old Martin, winner of this season’s Vic PGA Championship, in the slot.
There are 190 points awarded to the winner at picturesque Gulf Harbour this week, 380 points to the winner of the Play Today NSW Open at Rich River resort next week and 180 points for the season-ending The National tournament on the Mornington Peninsula from 30 March-2 April.
Order of Merit leader David Micheluzzi is not playing in Auckland this week in preparation for a rush to the finish line.
But Martin is planning to play all three of those events with the top three players on the Order of Merit earning DP World Tour playing rights, and the winner of the season-long points race getting a start in the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool in July.
The Bendigo native and tour veteran admitted that he had long aspired to play in Europe, but he wants to keep his game in perspective this week.
“For me, I’ll be trying not to think about it, just let the golf and good results take care of it,” said Martin. “The more you think about it, you might start … not panicking, but it’s something you don’t need in the back of your mind. My frame of mind is ‘play good golf, whatever happens, happens’. It’d be very nice, it’s definitely one of my goals. But I’ll go step-by-step, good golf will equal a good result either way.
“It (DP World Tour status) is something I’ve always wanted, I always wanted to do Europe over America. I think my game is better suited to Europe, and I’ve had 14 years of that. But I want to continue to play good golf and let the rest take care of itself.”
Melburnian Micheluzzi is on 1031 points at the top of the Order of Merit. Martin is on 652 points in fourth, but he knows that if he could haul in his fellow-Victorian at the top, he would be teeing it up in a major championship for the first time.
Today he said it was on his mind. “Absolutely. ‘Micka’ is on 1000, so I just need to focus on playing good golf and let the results come. That’s what I did the first half of the year, I guess. But that (an Open start) would be nice. There’s a bit of work to do. It’s not out of the question, I don’t think. He’s not playing this week. At the NSW Open, we’ll get a chance to see which guys move. It might decide either way what might happen.”
The race for the Order of Merit looms large at Gulf Harbour this week, with Micheluzzi and No. 2 ranked Brendan Jones both sitting it out.
Kiwi Michael Hendry (sixth) is playing this week, too, and shapes as a player who could make ground significant ground. Hendry is also a past winner of this tournament.
The NZ PGA has a proud history with past winners including Peter Thomson, Kel Nagle, Sir Bob Charles, Tony Jacklin, Greg Turner and Frank Nobilo.
The prize pool is $NZ150,000 and first tee-offs are at 8am Thursday local time.
Gulf Harbour, designed by Robert Trent Jones Junior, is a par-72 lay-out just north of Auckland which was opened in 1997 and hosted the 1998 World Cup of Golf.
Players to watch:
Order of Merit standings:
