There's a journo in Auckland to whom Queenstown — and NZ golf — owes a huge debt of gratitude.
Towards the end of 2010, Michael Glading quit his "dream job" as NZ Football’s CEO, one he felt he could have kept doing till he retired.
Unfortunately, he says, it was the result of a "difficult relationship" with his chairman, and ended with Glading falling on his sword.
But a subsequent newspaper article about his departure caught the attention of Queenstowner Sir Michael Hill.
Having developed his private Arrowtown golf course, The Hills, Sir Michael had commissioned some work focused on hosting a new tournament there.
It wasn’t long before Sir Michael was on the phone to Glading, asking him to take a look and, if he liked what he saw, offering him the job of running it.
"I read it and I rang him and said, ‘I think it’s flawed, I don’t think it’ll work, I think you’ll end up losing a fortune and I don’t think you should proceed, but thanks for the offer’."
An accountant by trade, Glading was convinced to have a meeting with Sir Michael about a month later, at which he asked how Glading would feel if his tournament became the NZ PGA Championship.
That piqued Glading’s interest, because there was equity in the brand, "history and a structure".
Meantime, waiting in the lobby that day was John Hart.
He was on the board of the PGA and, at that time, trying to get the championship up and running again — after sponsor HSBC pulled out, it hit the skids.
The pair had a "sliding doors" moment as Glading left that meeting, and Hart passed him on the way to chat to Sir Michael.
"About an hour later, John rang me and said, ‘hey, you and I should have a coffee’. And that’s exactly how it started."
The Hills had hosted the Open in ’07 as a European Tour event, then in ’09 and ’10 the US Nationwide Tour took its place.
Glading says he and Hart had just six months to pull together the first NZ PGA Championship, also at The Hills, before it was staged in 2012.
After a couple of years, Golf NZ approached and asked if the dream team would be interested in turning that tourney into the NZ Open.
"So then we had to go to the NZ PGA board and say, ‘would you step aside and allow this to happen?’, and, bless them, they did."
Glading and Hart continued the pro-am format from the NZ PGA Championship into the new-look Open — under that arrangement, the 156 amateurs, each partnered with a pro, pay $25,000.
While the tournament’s continued, most years, to lose money — since 2023 it’s been underwritten by Millbrook Resort — Glading’s quick to point out that’s "by design".
"This is the first job I’ve ever had in my life where, actually, I don’t have to make a profit.
"I just have to make sure we have, what I would call, a manageable loss."
Having previously spent 26 years working for Sony Music, initially as the accountant before about 19 years as CEO, during which time he signed the likes of Kiwi Bic Runga, Glading clearly has an ability to spot up-and-coming talent.
That forms a huge part of his role with the Open, attending tournaments and scouting for players each year. His targets are "realistic" — organisers don’t pay appearance fees, so that rules out top players such as Justin Rose — while the timing of the PGA Tour rules out players such as Kiwi Ryan Fox.
"It’s about finding the right player on the way up ... striking while the iron is hot."
At the other end of that spectrum are golfers like Japanese pro Ryo Ishikawa, who’s playing here for the first time this week.
"He’s a legend in Japan ... sort of a Tiger Woods equivalent. He ... will boost the profile of the Open."
As to who Glading would put a quiet punt on to lift the Brodie Breeze on Sunday, his outsider is Kiwi Nick Voke, who’s fresh off his win at the Webex Players Series Sydney, while his hot favourite’s local Ben Campbell.
"I think it would be amazing if Ben would win."
‘It’s been a rough year’
Michael Glading considers himself "very lucky".
Last April he noticed a lump on his neck.
Soon after he was diagnosed with throat and tongue cancer, underwent three surgeries, had to learn how to swallow again, and then had a course of radiation.
Just last week he got an email from his specialist informing him he’s officially in remission.
"I slept for three hours that night because ... it just brought it straight back into the forefront of my mind."
Glading says when he first received his diagnosis his specialist started talking about treatment, "and he could see I wasn’t really listening".
"He stopped mid-sentence and he said, ‘hey, listen, look at me’.
"And I looked at him and he said ‘this is not a death sentence, we will beat this’.
"And I was like, Jesus, in all my life, all the things that people have said to me, that is something I will never forget, because I believed him.
"It’s a cliche that there’s always someone worse off than you, but boy, oh, boy do you ever see that when you’re up close and personal."
