Nocera returns to New Zealand

Defending champion Gwladys Nocera leads a super-strong European contingent to contest the Pegasus New Zealand Women’s Open hosted by Christchurch, which starts on Thursday.

Frenchwoman Nocera returns for the upgraded second New Zealand Open that will boast $415,000 in prize money and is fully co-sanctioned between the Ladies European Tour and the Australian Ladies Professional Golf (ALPG).

The tournament has moved to the new Kristine Kerr-designed course at Pegasus Town near Christchurch, the new naming sponsor for the event on 25-28 February.

Nocera faces a significantly stronger field that includes winners of eight tournaments in Europe last year.

They include fellow Solheim Cup star Becky Brewerton (Open de Espana winner), Linda Wessberg (UNIQA Open champion), Marianne Skarpnord (Deutsche Bank Ladies Swiss Open and Carta Si Ladies Italian Open), Felicity Johnson (Tenerife Ladies Open), Azahara Munoz Guijarro (Madrid Open), Laura Davies (Australian Women’s Open) and Tania Elosegui (ABN AMRO Ladies Open).

Four members of Europe’s Solheim Cup will compete in Brewerton (England), Elosegui (Spain), Laura Davies (England) and Nocera, with 12 of last year’s top 20 from the Henderson Money List and seven of the top-10.

Former world No 1 Davies, who captured the Women’s Australian Open 12 months ago, will again be a major draw card as will Brewerton, who capped a great season with eight top-five finishes to be third on the 2009 Henderson Money List. Skarpnord won twice with five top-fives to be fourth and Elosequi was fifth.

Watch out too for talented English player Melissa Reid, seventh last year on the Henderson Money List after six top-10s in 2009, while there will be real interest in a super star of the future in Spain’s Azahara Munoz. The 22-year -old was the NCAA Champion at Arizona State and last year’s British Amateur champion, who won on her professional debut on the LET at her home country’s Madrid Ladies Masters in a play-off.

Nocera explained how she is excited at the prospect of defending her New Zealand title: “It's important to me to be there, it's the beginning of the season for the LET and I'll be very happy to be back there. It’s pretty difficult to win any tournament and winning back to back is a succession of good things happening to you, and it doesn’t happen too often,’’ she said.

Nocera will split her year between the United States and Europe where she has a 10-year exemption.

In her third bid to earn LPGA status, Nocera finished second in sectional qualifying then finished 16th equal in the final stage over five rounds at Daytona Beach in Florida.

“I want to set myself new challenges so I will have to test myself. I will have to increase my level of play and work hard, it's going to be a tough task but I like the thought of it.”

Although she left the amateur ranks at the relatively advanced age of 27, Nocera has won 10 LET titles, backed them up with 41 top-10 placings and earned more than 1.5 million euros in tournament income.

For full details of the Pegasus New Zealand Women’s Open, please visit www.nzopengolf.co.nz.

About Pegasus

Pegasus, a town for up to 7,000 people being built 25 kilometres north of Christchurch, will be the largest fully-zoned, master-planned town development of its kind in New Zealand. The town, on 420 hectares bordering Pegasus Bay in North Canterbury, is part of the Waimakariri District.

Pegasus has been designed to create a community built on a remarkable array of recreational features – a feature lake with filtered and heated swimming bay, extensive hot pools, 18-hole championship golf course, restaurants, cafés and bars, shopping districts, a superb beach with dedicated surf club, yacht club, KidZone play facilities, equestrian centre and much more.

Pegasus is being developed by Infinity Investment Group Holdings Ltd, a Wanaka-based property investment and development company carrying out $1.6 billion of development projects in the South Island, and joint-venture partner Brookfield Multiplex, one of the country’s largest fully-integrated property businesses owned by Brookfield Asset Management which has circa $80 billion (Canadian) of global assets under management.