TELFER’S THOUGHTS 23.2.26

Across opposite sides of the world last weekend, Ryan Fox and Lydia Ko showed emphatically why they are our two most successful and celebrated golfers.

Competing against most of the world’s best, each produced golf of the highest quality. It would not have come as a great surprise if either had kicked on for a victory. Each was in the hunt for a title but neither could go low enough on the last day to notch up a win. However both finished comfortably inside the top 10 of their respective tournaments.

Together their combined scores totalled 32 under par. Each player posted 4 rounds in the 60’s. Now here’s where it gets interesting. Fox and Ko could well team up and compete for a gold medal in a new Mixed Team event that’s been added to the golf schedule at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Sure, 2028 is a long way off and Lydia has spoken about retiring from the game by the time she reaches 30 and that’s in April this year. However her form in 2026 on the LPGA Tour suggests to me she may be having second thoughts about an imminent retirement. That strong competitive element, such a hallmark of her career, looks to be alive and well, very well in fact, in 2026. Last week in Thailand she finished 4th in the Thailand Honda LPGA, reeling off rounds of 67, 64, 69, 68, hardly the sort of golf you’d be turning in if you’re retiring in two months.

Meanwhile Foxy joined the swinging 60’s party with rounds of 67, 69, 69 and 67 at the Genesis Invitational at the Riviera Golf Club in Los Angeles, which just so happens to be the club that will host the golf competition at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Foxy finished in a tie for 7th place, winning US$602,000. He jumped 35 places on the FedEx Cup table after this LA performance and now ranks 24th . Only the top 50 on the USPGA Tour at season’s end qualify for the rich FedEx Cup series. But it was anything but a laid-back week for many of New Zealand’s up and coming crop of young pros. Most of them were at the iconic Paraparaumu links playing in the NZPGA Championship which was dominated by golfers from Australia. Oddly enough it was a visitor from the USA, 30-year-old Truslow Austen, who took out the major prize and took home the handsome trophy that goes to the winner.

All eyes now switch from Paraparaumu to Queenstown for the 2026 NZ Open which starts on Thursday, 26 February.

Once again John Hart and his team have attracted a very strong field for this NZ Open which carries a purse of NZ$2million dollars in prizemoney.

The Kiwi challenge will be headed by Daniel Hillier and Kazuma Kobori, our two leading DP World Tour professionals.

Also in the field are two USPGA Tour winners, Kevin Na, a 5-time winner on the USPGA Tour, who appears to have severed his ties with LIV Golf and hopes to regain his playing rights on the US Tour. Also from the USA comes Kyle Stanley, twice a winner on the US Tour. Another Kiwi with strong credentials of late is Ben Campbell, the New Zealander enjoying a very profitable period on the LIV Golf Tour.

All up there’s no doubt about this year’s Open - it’s one of the most competitive NZ Opens we’ve seen for many years.

A tournament which Aussie pros by and large have tended to dominate in recent years, but this year it could be a very different story. Let’s hope there are Kiwis on the front page of the leaderboard coming down the stretch at Millbrook on Sunday afternoon.