Jenna Hunter is ready to defend her title when she tees off at this year’s Anita Boon Pro-Am on Thursday 21st and Friday 22nd September at North Shore Golf Club just outside Auckland.

The Aucklander and former North Shore Golf Club professional, has had her best season on the Australian Ladies Professional Golf (ALPG) tour this year with three top-10 finishes. A win in a few days’ time will give her confidence ahead of the star-studded LPGA McKayson NZ Women’s Open the following week.

“I am really looking forward to defending the Anita Boon Pro-Am title. It is great preparation for the McKayson NZ Women’s Open and is always such a fun event to play in while raising money for charity\"

This year’s Anita Boon Pro-Am has moved forward in the calendar year to provide further playing opportunities for Kiwi professionals as they head into tour schools and major events in the summer, including the McKayson New Zealand Women’s Open being played the following week on Thursday 28 September to Sunday 1 October.

Lynnette Brooky, the former multiple winner on the Ladies European Tour, will be competing at this year’s Anita Boon Pro-Am for the first time and specifically as a warm-up and preparation for playing the McKayson NZ Women’s Open the following week.
Brooky has been retired from full-time professional tour golf for the last four years, where she and her husband and business partner, Ian Godleman have been focusing on their coaching business in the greater Wellington area.

“We are delighted with the strength of this year’s field and the support of kiwi professionals once again playing our event. It is great to see Lynnette Brooky, clearly one of NZ’s all-time best professional women golfers supporting our event this year. With the Pro-Am moving forward in the calendar year it has meant that our event is playing an important role in preparing our kiwi players for the McKayson NZ Women’s Open. We wish all players the best of performances for this week and for next week,” NZPWG trustee Liz McKinnon says.

New Zealand`s 2nd and 3rd ranked players, Cathryn Bristow and Liv Cheng, who was also the 2017 KFC Golf Scholarship winner, are notably missing this week as they compete on the Ladies European and Symetra Tours, as they vie to secure important ranking points and tour cards for next year.
However, Bristow will be making it home in time to play next week at the McKayson NZ Women’s Open after a long journey back from Spain.

Other notable Kiwis who are home and teeing it up at this week’s Anita Boon Pro-Am are social media golf phenomenon and golf trick shot artist Tania Tare, along with 2016 Women’s World Long Drive and Women’s Longest Drive World Record holder Phillis Meti.

Tare and Meti will be displaying their special golf skills with a combined demonstration each day of the Pro-Am at 11.30am before the shot gun start at 12.30pm.

The large contingent of Australians who continually travel over to support the Anita Boon Pro-Am and earn valuable ALPG tour order of merit points will be led by 2015 Anita Boon Pro-Am winner Stacey Peters (nee Keating) regular LPGA Tour player Sarah Kemp and West Australian Whitney Hillier.

Peters is very excited to be coming back over to NZ to compete in both tournaments. 
“I have good memories from the 2015 event. I enjoyed the North Shore golf course and had a lot of fun with my amateur playing partners. It is great the event is the week before the McKayson NZ Women’s Open, as the Anita Boon Pro-Am will assist with my preparation.”

The increasing number of Australian golfers participating in the Anita Boon Pro-Am, which is one of the most lucrative Pro-ams of the ALPG Pro-Am 2017/18 series, has added to the depth and prestige of the event, which has been co-sanctioned by New Zealand Professional Women Golfers and Australian Ladies Professional Golf since 2013. 

This event provides amateur golfers with the unique opportunity to play alongside the rising stars of women’s golf, however, the primary purpose of the event is to raise funds for NZPWG’s two elected charities: Look Good Feel Better charity and the KFC Golf Scholarship. 
The tournament raised $10,000 for last year’s elected charity.

About the Anita Boon Pro-am

The tournament was established in 2009, in memory of former New Zealand representative Anita Boon who passed away from ovarian cancer.The 2017 Anita Boon Pro-Am tournament will be held at the North Shore Golf Club from 21 to 22 September.

Scores will be updated each evening on alpg.com.au

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