The 2024 New Zealand golfing season tees off tomorrow with 149 young people competing at the North Island Age Group Championships held at Taupo Golf Club.

The popular age group event will see some of the North Island’s junior golfers compete in under-19 boys and girls divisions and under-16 boys and girls divisions, crowning four champions at the end of the 54-hole tournament.

Bay of Plenty and Rotorua amateur Kevin Bang enters the week fresh off a hole-in-one at Lake Taupo’s Hole-in-one Challenge, hitting the perfect shot to the red flag on the pontoon and winning $10 thousand dollars. He is playing in the under-16 boys division.

Others looking to add their names to the under-16 boys trophy are Ricky Kang (Wakatipu), who finished fourth in last year’s New Zealand under-16’s, as well as William Dunsmore (Levin) and Leo Liu (North Shore).

The under-19 boys division will be hotly contested, with New Zealand Amateur champion Seb May (Clearwater) headlining the field. He’s joined by New Zealand Interprovincial representatives Nathan Clark (Tauranga), Brodie Ferguson (Kaitake), Jordan Jones (Pakuranga), Isaac Steel (Tieke Golf Estate), Kingston Taylor-Voyle (Manukorihi), and Ricky Yoon (Takapuna).

Daniel Freeman (Remuera) and US-based Shinju Aoki (North Shore) are also expected to feature.

Like the boys’ under-19 division, several New Zealand Interprovincial players are vying for the under-19 girls' trophy. Rebekah Blackwell-Chin (Remuera), Sora Kishida (Rangiora), Tania Ellis (Tauranga), Suwanna McPhee (Cambridge), Sera Raj (Feilding), Gemma Towers (Te Awamutu), and Kayla Van De Ven (Napier) are a few interprovincial players to watch out for.

Former New Zealand under-16 girl’s champion Yoonae Jeong (Millbrook Resort) headlines the under-16 girl’s division. She will have stiff competition from Juwon Kim (Pupuke), who recently won the Springfield Open, and Auckland’s Cherry Lee.

Play gets underway from 7.30am tomorrow morning, with a cut being made after 36-holes.