Tell Sir Bob Charles, who still talks fondly of the New Zealand Open he won as an amateur in 1954 and added three further titles to go with his great British Open triumph in 1963.
Tell Greg Turner, whose solid professional career included two New Zealand Opens, or Michael Campbell, who won his home Open in 2000, five years before he shocked the world with his US Open triumph.
And tell Dunedin professional Mahal Pearce, who rose from obscurity to win the New Zealand Open at Middlemore in 2003 - and changed his life forever.
Pearce is of particular note when talking about home-grown heroes as he was the last native to win the New Zealand Open.
Only twice in the 103-year history of the New Zealand Open has there previously been a gap of as long as seven years between New Zealand winners.
From 1957 to 1965, the Open belonged to Australians, with Kel Nagle and Peter Thomson each winning four times and Bruce Devlin once.
Then, after Simon Owen won the tournament in 1976, there was not to be a New Zealander at the top of the leaderboard until Turner in 1989.
Australians Bob Shearer (twice), Stewart Ginn, Terry Gale, Ian Baker-Finch, Rodger Davis and Ian Stanley, Americans Corey Pavin (twice), Bob Byman and Buddy Allen, and Irishman Ronan Rafferty blocked the locals out.
From 1996 to 2001 - beginning with Michael Long and ending with David Smail - a Kiwi won the Open every year, the longest stretch of home-grown winners in 50 years.
But since Pearce's emotional win in 2003, the tournament has been taken over by the invaders again.
Two Australians (Terry Price and Nathan Green), a Swede (Niclas Fasth), an Englishman (Richard Finch) and an American (Alex Prugh) have had their names engraved on the trophy.
New Zealand is known as a hospitable country, but this is starting to get frustrating.
If one thing can really bring the New Zealand Open alive at The Hills next week, it will be a sustained charge from a Kiwi.
It won't be Campbell or Danny Lee - they're not here - but any one of the other top professionals is good enough to compete against the best of the rest.
