{"id":505257,"date":"2026-02-26T11:54:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T11:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/505257\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T11:54:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T11:54:07","slug":"kazuma-kobori-ace-sparks-kiwi-charge-at-new-zealand-golf-open-before-amateur-surges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/505257\/","title":{"rendered":"Kazuma Kobori ace sparks Kiwi charge at New Zealand Golf Open before amateur surges"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cUnfortunately, we have to come out tomorrow, but I\u2019ve just got to accept it and play with it. I think we definitely got the, I don\u2019t want to jinx myself, but better side of the draw so far.<\/p>\n

\"YukiYuki Miya of New Zealand during Round 1 of 105th New Zealand Open. Millbrook Resort, Arrowtown, New Zealand. Photo \/ Chris Symes \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely didn\u2019t get as bad rain as we saw this morning, and the wind died down for us as well. So, it was good,\u201d said Miya as he made his way back to the clubhouse in fading light.<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old admits he had one eye on the leaderboard throughout the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing guys like Kevin Na up there is, it\u2019s pretty easy to look at it and hard not to,\u201d says Miya.<\/p>\n

It was a difficult day for the most of the pro-am field that saw their tee times delayed by three hours due to heavy rain. By the time play got underway, it was clear that groups with a later tee time would have some catch-up holes to play on day two.<\/p>\n

Among them is the top-ranked player in the field, Dan Hillier. The New Zealander was beautifully placed at 5-under with five holes to play in his opening round.<\/p>\n

\"KiwiKiwi Daniel Hillier during the first round of the 105th NZ Open, at Millbrook. Photo \/ Chris Symes \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

What made Hillier\u2019s round even more impressive is that he\u2019d managed it on the Coronet course – a course that almost everyone had struggled with on the opening day.<\/p>\n

Millbrook local Ben Campbell finished a tidy opening round at 1-under, matched by 2017 champion \u2013 and the last Kiwi to hold the Brodie Breeze trophy \u2013 Michael Hendry.<\/p>\n

Before the late surge by Sanchez, Miya and Hillier, the overnight clubhouse lead looked like it would belong to experienced American Kevin Na and Australian Wade Ormsby, who both carded a round of 66. The 42-year-old Na says he hasn\u2019t played tournament golf in at least three months. He admits conditions were tough.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was difficult out there. When I saw the weather forecast, I was like, \u2018Oh no, I got the bad draw.\u2019 It was like a three-club wind with the rain at times, and I know the wind\u2019s died down, the rain\u2019s gone away, it\u2019s going to play a lot easier in the afternoon, but I did the best I could in the morning,\u201d said Na.<\/p>\n

\"AfterAfter a three-hour delay, the first tee shot of the 2026 NZ Golf Open at Millbrook Resort. Photo \/ Mike Thorpe<\/p>\n

When Kobori stepped up to the tee on the par-3 fourth hole on the Remarkables course, he was unaware that his playing partner, Alker, had scored a hole-in-one there in practice on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Kobori went one better with an ace that counted on the scorecard \u2013 taking him from 2-under to 4-under and a share of the lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly heard about that afterwards. You don\u2019t really expect to hole it on that hole. Especially with a four iron in hand in these conditions. We celebrated a little bit,\u201d said Kobori.<\/p>\n

The DP Tour pro described conditions as \u201creal gnarly\u201d but found the wind harder to contend with than the rain.<\/p>\n

Kobori held a share of the lead when he teed up on his final hole of the day, but slipped back after finding the water on the par-3 ninth hole.<\/p>\n

He says he enjoyed playing alongside Alker.<\/p>\n

\u201cStevie played really nicely. It was nice to play with him because, you know, he plays the game in a similar way that I do. It was good to play with him and then kind of bounce off of each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kobori and the Kiwi contingent weren\u2019t the only local heroes in action on day one.<\/p>\n

\"GreensGreens staff work hard to clear water from the practice green at Millbrook Resort after a morning of torrential rain. Photo \/ Mike Thorpe<\/p>\n

The green staff at Millbrook worked their squeegees to a nub moving water off the putting surfaces. The rain was heavy before play was scheduled to start at 7.40am, and at times during the three-hour delay it got heavier. The fact that the delay was only three hours was due to the huge amount of work the green staff got through.<\/p>\n

Bob Grant also displayed heroic deeds at the intersection of the 8th green and 9th tee. Grant was unperturbed by the conditions, displaying incredible optimism by spectating in shorts and jandals. It was wet, windy and brutally cold.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll come right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BobBob Grant was unconcerned by the wet, windy and freezing conditions that greeted players and spectators on the opening day at Millbrook Resort near Queenstown. Photo \/ Mike Thorpe<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t. But it\u2019s forecast to improve throughout the week.<\/p>\n

The first round will resume from 7.40am on Friday.<\/p>\n

Mike Thorpe<\/a> is a senior multimedia journalist for the Herald, based in Christchurch. He has been a broadcast journalist across television and radio for 20 years and joined the Herald in August 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cUnfortunately, we have to come out tomorrow, but I\u2019ve just got to accept it and play with it.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[24990,9490,4032,4218,1929,64,63,21575,10966,755,25899,153447,68796,8835,68797,36436,253781,3127,16804,8936,34577,16372,9680,58144,85,22665,31375,25667,3205],"class_list":{"0":"post-505257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-ace","9":"tag-after","10":"tag-amateur","11":"tag-another","12":"tag-at","13":"tag-au","14":"tag-australia","15":"tag-before","16":"tag-charge","17":"tag-golf","18":"tag-heroics","19":"tag-hometown","20":"tag-kazuma","21":"tag-kiwi","22":"tag-kobori","23":"tag-might","24":"tag-millbrook","25":"tag-new","26":"tag-open","27":"tag-over","28":"tag-resort","29":"tag-some","30":"tag-soon","31":"tag-sparks","32":"tag-sports","33":"tag-surges","34":"tag-wait","35":"tag-winner","36":"tag-zealand"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}