The Handa New Zealand Senior Masters will be played at the revamped Millbrook course on February 19-21, with a purse of $150,000.
Sir Bob Charles is a definite starter, along with Australians Peter Fowler and Mike Harwood, while other top seniors such as Wayne Grady and Peter Senior may also line up.
The tournament will be followed by the Club Car Legends Pro-Am at the Kelvin Heights golf course on February 23 while the focus will then shift to Dunedin where the City of Dunedin Legends Pro-Am will be played at the Otago Golf Club on February 25-27.
Millbrook sales and marketing director Kim Carpenter said the event was "pennies from heaven" and a coup for the course.
"Certainly, with three events down here in the South, there is plenty of reason for senior golfers to come down here and try and earn some good money," Carpenter said.
He said with the New Zealand Open to be played at The Hills later this month, Queenstown was attracting some quality events.
"With the likes of The Hills opening up and the Jacks Point, it has kept everyone on their toes, giving us a nudge, and that can only be good for golf here."
The tournament will have three separate competitions - a 54-hole strokeplay event for professionals, a Dunhill links format involving amateurs, and an age-handicap tournament for professionals.
The amateur competition would involve one amateur teaming up with a professional for two rounds, Carpenter said.
In the age-handicap event, players would be given handicaps depending on their age to even out the play, he said.
"With one amateur teaming up with one professional, that really makes it friendlier for the players as opposed to having three amateurs and one professional."
The event had come about through the generosity of Japanese businessman and philanthropist Dr Haruhisa Handa, who has a house in Queenstown and wanted to bring a golf tournament to the area.
He has sponsored other tournaments around the world, including the Australian Women's Open.
Carpenter said although the event was just over a month away, he was confident of getting up to 40 to 50 professionals to line up.
Millbrook members would pay $600 and non-members $750 to play in the tournament.
The event at Millbrook, near Arrowtown, would be seen as the flagship for the eight senior events to be played in New Zealand this summer, PGA national events manager Jim Clelland said.
Millbrook had undergone reconstruction and a new course would be a real feature for the tournament, with the back nine being revamped.
