This year marks the seventh occasion the Asian Tour has been fortunate enough to joint-sanction the tournament with the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia. There is also a strong presence from Japan as the tournament is staged in partnership with the Japan Golf Tour, which is an important part of the event with the Ishii family’s ownership of Millbrook Resort.
The Asian Tour has 33 exemptions from a starting field of 156 but with dual members from the other Tours roughly one third of the field are members of the Asian Tour.
As per last year, the New Zealand Open will form part of the Open Qualifying Series with the leading player, not otherwise exempt, qualifying to play in the 154th Open at Royal Birkdale this summer.
The 2025 Asian Tour Order of Merit champion Kazuki Higa from Japan is the highest ranked player on the OWGR in the field this week at number 123. Pavit Tangkamolprasert from Thailand started his 2026 campaign with a very strong statement at the season-opening Philippine Golf Championship with a runner-up finish, pushing the eventual winner Wooyoung Cho from Korea all the way to the end.
Australian Lucas Herbert, currently playing on the LIV Golf League for the all-Aussie Ripper GC squad, has finished T6 in Adelaide and T9 in Riyadh to open up his 2026 LIV season. Herbert also has one PGA Tour win on his resume, the 2021 Butterfield Bermuda Championship, as well as two victories on the DP World Tour: the 2020 Omega Dubai Desert Classic and the 2021 Dubai Duty Free Irish Open.
New Zealand’s local hero and Queenstown resident Ben Campbell is also playing on the LIV Golf League, for the Range Goats GC team. He has finished joint second in his home national Open twice, in 2023 behind winner Brendan Jones from Australia and in 2017 losing in a play-off to another Australian in Michael Hendry. Campbell is a two-time Asian Tour and International Series winner, claiming the 2023 Hong Kong Open and the 2024 International Series Morocco.
Americans Kevin Na and Nick Watney, both five-time winners on the PGA Tour, are also in the field this week, as is former PGA Tour player Kyle Stanley, also from the U.S.
Here’s the prize money breakdown for each golfer at the 2026 New Zealand Open.
1 $360,000
2 $220,000
3 $126,000
4 $100,000
5 $82,000
6 $66,600
7 $57,000
8 $49,000
9 $42,800
10 $38,200
11 $34,900
12 $32,500
13 $30,300
14 $28,900
15 $27,700
16 $26,500
17 $25,300
18 $24,100
19 $23,100
20 $22,300
21 $21,800
22 $21,200
23 $20,600
24 $20,000
25 $19,400
26 $18,800
27 $18,200
28 $17,600
29 $17,000
30 $16,400
31 $16,200
32 $15,600
33 $15,200
34 $14,800
35 $14,400
36 $14,000
37 $13,600
38 $13,200
39 $12,800
40 $12,400
41 $12,100
42 $11,700
43 $11,300
44 $10,900
45 $10,700
46 $10,600
47 $10,200
48 $9,800
49 $9,400
50 $9,000
51 $8,600
52 $8,200
53 $7,800
54 $7,600
55 $7,400
56 $7,200
57 $7,000
58 $6,800
59 $6,600
60 $6,400
61 $6,200
62 $6,000
63 $5,800
64 $5,600
65 $5,400
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