Forty-seven under-17 players will converge on the Taieri course this morning for the first two rounds of the national junior Eagles championship over 54 holes.
There are two boys and one girl from each province and all have qualified for the event by finishing in the first two in their provincial events.
The field is boosted by the inclusion of a dozen Otago under-17 boys, most of whom will compete over 36 holes before travelling to Cromwell for the Otago schoolboys championship, which starts tomorrow.
The event started in 1981 when the Wellington Eagles staged the inaugural event in conjunction with the Wellington junior strokeplay championship.
The first seven events were held on Wellington's Miramar course, with girls first included in 1984.
The honours board reads like a who's who of New Zealand golf, with past winners including Glen Goldfinch (Auckland) in 1982, Craig Perks (Manawatu-Wanganui) in 1983 and Michael Campbell (Wellington) in 1989.
Tony Christie (Canterbury), winner in 1987, Richard Lee (Auckland), in 1990, and Gareth Paddison (Wellington), in 1997, have all gone on to have successful professional careers.
New Zealand's top junior prospect, Peter Spearman-Burn (Wellington), is the only player to win it twice, in 2005 and 2007.
Shelley Duncan, the resident professional at the Otago Golf Club, was the winner of the inaugural girls event in 1984.
Others to feature in the girls event are Rene Fowler (Bay of Plenty) in 1982, Lisa Aldridge (Wellington) in 1988 and Otago No 1 Monica Tulisi in 2006.
This is the first time the Otago Eagles have hosted the final, and committee convener Peter Brownie believes this event will be one of the most successful.
Leading prospects in the boys event are Nic Meyer (Bay of Plenty) on a handicap index of +0.4, Owen Burgess (Canterbury) on +0.3 and Otago schoolboy titleholder Tim Leonard (Aorangi) on +0.1.
Zoe-Beth Brake (Bay of Plenty) heads the girls field playing off an index of +2.6.
Duncan Croudis (Otago) and Thomas Forbes (North Otago) are the local qualifiers for the boys event while Shani Arona (Arrowtown) is Otago's top girl.
Alastair Hinsley, the chairman of Metropolitan Golf, holed out with a four iron into a strong northerly wind on the 161m 14th hole at Island Park on Sunday.
He was playing in an intermediate pennant match and first thought his ball had carried over the back of the green.
This is Hinsley's third ace, having holed out on the 14th hole on his home Chisholm Park course in May this year.
His first hole in one was also at Chisholm Park, that time with an eight iron on the 131m 10th hole.
