The Ray White Chinese New Zealand Open was held successfully at Akarana Golf Club on Thursday 13 November.
Organized by Golf007, and proudly sponsored by Ray White New Zealand and Ray White City Apartments, the competition was played over 18 holes and attracted entries from 120 Chinese golfers making it the biggest Chinese golf event to be held in Auckland. Competition between the groups (representing Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, and Malaysia) was intense – with the Hong Kong team winning the championship by a single point.
Awards were presented at a local Chinese restaurant with all present enjoying a seated dinner and ceremony where participants also received some great prizes, such as Kauri Cliffs golf packages, Hilton Hotel accommodation packages,golf clubs, accessories and much more. During the evening there was also a lucky draw for a return flight to Australia courtesy of China Airlines. Participants were honoured that Carey Smith, CEO of Ray White New Zealand was also able to join them for the prize giving ceremony.
A Volkswagen Golf car was offered as a prize for any hole in ones at the event – and although there were some very good attempts, and plenty of near-misses, the prize was not won.
Simon Cheung, Golf007 General Manager, aims to hold this event annually, and hopes it will become a regular part of Chinese golf in Auckland. Simon thanked Ray White, the local Chinese media, and other sponsors for their strong support of the tournament.
With close to 12 per cent of Ray White New Zealand members speaking Chinese, and an increasing number of property sales both in residential and commercial being to Chinese buyers, Ray White New Zealand has been witnessing a dramatic increase in activity around Chinese markets. Having a large number of Chinese speaking team members in his City Apartments team, Phil and his team not only sponsored the Chinese New Zealand Open event, but assisted too on the day – with his team taking the opportunity to discuss and network with players. Phil Horrobin said it the event offered “a great opportunity for his team members to get out and meet these Chinese speaking members of our community in a fun and relaxed environment.”
Having worked with Statistics New Zealand earlier in the year Ray White New Zealand recognise the importance of overseas investors, specifically in getting the best possible results for property vendors, and have released a Chinese Marketing Toolkit for members to help market to this significant buyer pool. Additionally the Group now offer a range of translated tools to the group and have recently also partnered with Juwai.com, China’s leading property portal.