There are nine spots up for grabs in an inaugural trans-Tasman golf clash in Queenstown next week, with charity at its heart.
Australian Stuart Gray says Conor, one of his two Kiwi sons, was diagnosed with desmoplastic small round cell tumour, or DSRCT — ‘‘totally incurable, one-in-three-million cancer’’ — just after his 21st birthday in 2021.
He passed away last July, shortly after turning 22.
Prior to his diagnosis, Gray had been working on a new Australian golf tourney — The Amateur Series — in which golfers would play in a club event to qualify winners for a regional final, winners of which would qualify for a national final.
Gray says during his son’s battle, he spoke to him about renaming the tournament in his honour — something Conor was only comfortable with if every player contributed financially to the Australian Cancer Research Foundation.
Along with raising money for the charity, Conor’s Amateur Series has become a world amateur golf-ranking event, the top three place-getters of which are forming half the Australian team playing in Queenstown next week.
A stableford tournament runs along side the series, and the top three finishers in that form the other half of the team crossing the ditch.
Gray’s got a long-standing relation ship with Queenstowner Rob Taylor — the pair used to play together at Auckland’s Titirangi Golf Club — who’s organising three of the elite Kiwis playing for NZ next week, while there’ll be an auction for the club players’ spots.
Conor’s Anzac Cup’s being played on Monday, at Kelvin Height’s Queenstown Golf Club, and next Tuesday and Wednesday at Jack’s Point in a Ryder Cup format — a foursome, followed by four-ball, then singles.
Gray says that means there are nine club spots up for grabs, if any club players only want to play one day.
All profits from the players’ auction will go to New Zealand’s Child Cancer Foundation, as will proceeds from a live auction of memorabilia.
Items going under the hammer include a pair of All Blacks shorts signed by Christian Cullen, Tana Umaga and the late Jonah Lomu, one of only 10 prints made of ‘Dawn of the Millennium’, taken during the sunrise of January 1, 2000, and a ‘‘Year 2000’’ cricket bat, signed by the Black Caps.
The auction starts at The Rees Hotel at 7.30pm tonight.
