I feel obliged to inject a note of seriousness into this discussion.
What do you guys honestly think it's worth to Julian Robertson to host the NZ Open at Cape Kidnappers? You really think it's worth more than a million dollars? The course already has a great reputation and the international exposure from the NZ Open is not that great.
I remember when we were building Pacific Dunes, Mike Keiser was offered the "great opportunity" to host what wound up being "The Battle at BigHorn" at Bandon Dunes instead. It would have cost him $4 million for 3 years. But without real estate to sell, that's a ridiculous marketing investment in golf. And Bandon Dunes has managed to do just fine in spite of passing on the opportunity.
The new Hills Course outside Queenstown has been confirmed as hosting the next 3 NZ Opens:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4044901a1823.htmlI'm just a working schmuck, but it seems to me that 1 million NZ dollars (750k US) to host a European/Australasion Tour co-sanctioned event is pocket change to a guy that measures his wealth in the Billions. What is it to host a USPGA Tour event, 7 million? An Open tournament (actually the 100th playing of the NZ Open) with the likes of Ernie Els, Paul Casey, Henrik Stenson, Retief Goosen, Sergio Garcia, Stuart Appleby, Robert Allenby, Adam Scott, etc. is a slightly different kettle of fish than the Battle of the Bighorn. And while Bandon Dunes may be going like gangbusters, Cape Kidnappers certainly does not appear to be.
It's estimated that the international TV audience will be 20 million viewers for this years Open. Despite it's great reputation, we played Kidnappers the other day and were the only group on the course for the entire day. I've now played it a dozen+ times and at least half those occasions have been on a completely empty course. I pity the poor souls that have to trudge up the hill to work in the pro shop day after day - greeting nobody, or perhaps 3 or 4 foursomes at most per day. It's emptiness proves that it could use a lot more international exposure.
So hats off to Michael Hill, whose 1-member course will now be beamed to those 20 million golf households. Apparently he thinks it is a good marketing investment. Obviously completely different businessmen with completely different agendas, but both concerned about promoting NZ golf tourism. Interesting how one took the bull by the horns.
There is no question that the Open will get to CK one day, but with it's new lodge scheduled to open the end of the year Mr. Robertson could have offered quite a nice enticement to produce a stellar field on a wonderful course. Perhaps the infrastucture is just not ready yet.
It will be interesting to see how many Aussies/Euro's Mr. Hill and Michael Campbell can convince to come to Queenstown.