The open concluded over the weekend. In a tight contest on the final day, Australian Brad Kennedy clinched the title.
A policy of not charging any entry to the general public led to larger crowds at the event but it does not have a major star, ranked in the world’s top 50.
Tournament chairman John Hart said the open was known for not being prepared to pay appearance fees and he was comfortable with that.
He said to get someone such as Australian Jason Day would cost upwards of $500,000.
"We’ve made a fundamental decision. We want people to come here because they want to come here. We want people to come here because we will look after them and they will enjoy it," Hart said.
"To spend half a million dollars on a player ... I would rather spend half a million dollars on prize money so all the players can try to win it.
"We have been lucky enough to get certain types of players down here. We would rather be known as a tournament which gets a lot of people and looks after them."
Australian organisers spent a lot of money on getting Chinese golfer Haotong Li to the Vic Open only for him to miss the cut, he said.
Someone like New Zealand professional Ryan Fox should be paid appearance money as he drew people to the tournament and did a lot for it.
"Here is a guy who flies round the world, does everything we ask of him and we don’t pay him. But we look after him in other ways."
Tournament director Michael Glading said getting players to Queenstown was the biggest challenge but once they arrived and saw the venue and vistas they would come back.
"This is a long way to travel for a lot of these guys. It is a sacrifice to play here. There is $1.4million to play for but guys might spend $10,000 to get here and miss the cut," Glading said.
He said 90% of tournaments paid appearance money.
Hart said the tournament was continuing to grow and the key was to make it sustainable into the future. It had been nine years in Queenstown and the pro-am format was the only option for the New Zealand Open in the future.
Millbrook would continue to host the last round, though the addition of nine new holes to the Millbrook complex later this year may lead to a different 18 holes played next year.
The tournament was set for the same dates next year.
Hart said the free entry idea had been a success with increased crowds.
"It is not financially worthwhile but we want to make it accessible. We can ride the money thing now. We couldn’t before.
"In the end it is collective decision. I think we got more publicity and feedback then a lot of other things. The crowds on Thursday-Friday were very good.
"The dream is to make it something that is forever sustainable and a showcase event on the New Zealand sporting calendar.
"We are managing to be doing that. You think back to when we first started nine years ago the prize money was $450,000. Now here we are. It is $1,450,000."
