Now he just has to turn around and try to win it. And he could use a win after a bit of a political setback recently.
The tournament gets under way at the club tomorrow. Despite the obstacles Covid-19 threw up, the 32-strong field shapes as good as any there have been during the event’s 30 years.
Kernaghan helped see to that. He is on the organising committee, but will wear another hat this weekend.
He is a three-time winner who is chasing a fourth title. While he has helped make that harder for himself, he would not have it any other way.
‘‘The biggest challenge is making sure we’ve got a good list of players we can invite, because not everyone can come,’’ he said.
‘‘Obviously, the Aussie guys — including New Zealand player Ali Forsyth, who lives in Aussie — can’t come.
‘‘It was about then saying ‘Well, who else can we invite?’.
‘‘But we’ve got a good field — it is really good. You’ve still got the likes of your Shannon McIlroys and Andrew Kellys, who are in the New Zealand team. Then there is a whole host of the next tier down and most of them are quite young and who are banging on the door and trying to push a claim for the New Zealand squad.’’
World champion McIlroy (33) is returning to defend the title he won for an unprecedented fourth time last year.
He beat Seamus Curtin in the final. Curtin has returned this year and will be hoping to go one better.
Former Otago golf No 1 Brent McEwan has been drawn in section three, but leading New Zealand bowler Gary Lawson is a late scratching due to injury.
And border restrictions mean Commonwealth Games champion Aaron Wilson (Australia) and Commonwealth silver medallist Ryan Besta (Canada) will be unable to contest the event.
Kernaghan (65) has recently retired, so he ought to have had more time for bowls.
But he has been busy on the campaign trail instead of the greens.
His son, Liam, stood for National in the Taieri electorate.
‘‘I’ve spent a lot of time on the road and put up a lot of hoardings, and you redo a lot of hoardings because they get damaged so quickly.
‘‘That was really exciting and I really enjoyed it. It was obviously not the result he wanted or National wanted.’’
Labour’s Ingrid Leary won the seat by more than 10,000 votes.
The format for the tournament will have the four winners of each section of eight bowlers automatically advance to the quarterfinals.
The second and third placed bowlers in each section will play off for the other four quarterfinal spots.
The final is on Monday and the winner will receive a cheque for $5000. The runner-up gets half that and each losing semifinalist banks $1500.
