Officials yesterday announced that no Open will be held this year, with the event originally slated for late November-early December being pushed back until next March at The Hills, near Queenstown.
The 2009 New Zealand PGA Championship is also being held next March in Christchurch.
New Zealand Golf chief executive Bill MacGowan acknowledged one option was to hold the two events in successive weeks.
This would probably see a change in co-sanctioning status for the New Zealand Open, which has been part of the European Tour for the past three years.
The NZ PGA Championship is an established stop on the Nationwide Tour, the second-tier circuit in the United States which has ventured to New Zealand and Australia since 2002.
The Open has been shunted around the calendar in recent times, moving from early summer to late summer slots in 2006 and 2007 since the European connection was first made.
New Zealand Golf will meet PGA Australia in Melbourne next Wednesday and MacGowan is hopeful the parties will settle on a final date.
"There is no single reason [for rescheduling]. There are about 50 or 60 pieces of the puzzle we need to get right.
"But having a week absolutely free of any other clashes will obviously help attract better players.
"We are looking forward to building on the enormous success of the first Michael Hill New Zealand Open played at The Hills Golf Club.
"This new date, and other arrangements, should result in stronger fields which we view as paramount."
MacGowan said the status of the Open was up for negotiation.
"It is an option," he said of linking with the Nationwide Tour.
If that transpired it would mean a significant cut in the Open prize money, which last year totalled $1.5 million.
The PGA Championship, by comparison, offered a purse of $US650,000 ($NZ847,350).
"To be fair, everything is an option at this stage. The only certainty is that the New Zealand Open will be at The Hills for the next two years," MacGowan said.
"Apart from that, everything else is up for grabs, including the purse.
What the purse needs to be is dependent on what tour you end up with."
MacGowan said officials were conscious of the need to add some certainty to the Open scheduling.
The original plan was to play this year's Open in the same late November-early December window as in 2007, but a suitable date before Christmas was not available due to the busy international calendar and increasing competition from tournaments, particularly in Asia.
"We are currently negotiating with key parties on the final dates and sanctioning agreements in relation to the championship," MacGowan said.
"However, we wanted to let golf fans and the general public know that the Open will not be at the same time as last year.
We know that a lot of people want to make plans to attend and we'll have some definite dates very soon."
Former New Zealand professional Greg Turner backed the move.
He thought the weather, while fine last year, was more settled in Central Otago during March, and New Zealand Golf would "probably have a better chance of attracting a stronger field".
"The before-Christmas date is a tough one in the sense guys, at the end of the year, are more inclined to stay at home.
Whereas in the New Year they are trying to get off to a good start." - with NZPA
