New Zealand Golf's decision to move the Open to Clearwater was disappointing "but Christchurch could do with a bit of a boost", The Hills golf professional Craig Palmer said yesterday.
After 13 months, the announcement was made yesterday the Open would be played at the exclusive Christchurch course from December 1 to 4 under the sanctioning of the Australasian PGA Tour.
Palmer said The Hills only found out "for sure" yesterday.
The last Open was held at businessman Sir Michael Hill's course in January 2010.
"A lot has had to go into making this decision.
"It hasn't been easy for any of the parties.
"It was always going to take a long time," Palmer said.
"We're obviously disappointed that we're not going to continue to host it in the foreseeable future, but we wish Christchurch all the best ... we hope they can build on the success [of the past three Opens in Arrowtown].
"They will need all our support ...
"I think we'll leave it to them, but if they were to come to us ... if we could help them, we would."
Palmer said.
The Hills would now continue to work on the Cure Kids New Zealand Open, which has been held in November for the past three years.
The tournament was the "main focus" for the golf course and it was hoped to be able to build on the success of the previous years "and hopefully make it bigger and better".
However, Palmer said The Hills had not ruled out bidding for the New Zealand Open after 2013.
Destination Queenstown chief executive Tony Everitt said he was sad to see the event move on, although he understood "a very competitive bid was made from the Canterbury people".
"At the same time, we've got a whole bunch of new and special events on the calendar ... that we have the opportunity to maximise, so it's up to us to minimise the impact by doing as much as we can with the other events coming up."
Destination Queenstown was in discussions with The Hills about how the regional tourism organisation could help with lobbying for the Open, but Everitt said he understood there were "some pretty major considerations from a national and an event level".
