Ash Barty will take a no-stress attitude into her high-profile pro-am pairing with good mate and DP World Tour player Anthony Quayle at the NZ Open.
The pro-am component of the $1.69 million tournament at Millbrook Resort now draws comparisons with the storied events at Pebble Beach and St Andrews.
Eleven-time world surfing champion Kelly Slater is a high-profile addition to this year’s field, which also includes the likes of Barty, former Australian Test cricket captain Ricky Ponting, his long-time NZ adversary Stephen Fleming and ex-All Blacks greats Jeff Wilson and Israel Dagg.
Since retiring from tennis to focus on her young family, former tennis world number one Barty has had little time to devote to golf, another of her sporting loves.
Kelly Slater and Ash Barty during the Ambassadors putting competition at the The 105th New Zealand Open at Millbrook Resort on Tuesday. (AAP: Photosport/Michael Thomas)
But the former Wimbledon, French Open and Australian Open champion is very much looking forward to teaming up with Quayle this week where she will play off a handicap of four.
“This is a beautiful place to visit, a beautiful place to play golf, so it’ll be nice to dust the cobwebs off the clubs,” the 29-year-old said.
“I’ve played two rounds of golf in two years so the form is pretty scarce.
“The good thing is I’m fresh and there are no demons … so what could possibly go wrong?”
Barty reached out to Quayle a couple of months ago and he was more than happy to sign on as her playing partner in the pro-am.
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“It’s kind of all worked out really well,” he said.
“For such an incredible athlete, each time I’ve asked her how her lead-in to this event has been she’s like ‘Oh, it’s just terrible, the game’s terrible, I just haven’t played enough’.
“And then I was watching her hit a few putts with a custom Wimbledon Odyssey putter.
“She holed about eight in a row and I’m like, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. You could be a bit of an over-achiever here’.”
AAP