Organised women's golf matches were first played in New Zealand in 1893, when a match play competition was established as part of the men’s championship tournament. The ladies played for a trophy donated by Mrs G. G. Stead (née Lucie Maria Wilkinson), the wife of George Gatonby Stead, who was a grain merchant, racehorse owner and breeder from Christchurch.

The inaugural New Zealand Women’s Amateur championship took place at Otago, with Ethel Lomax-Smith, the South African-born wife of a general practitioner, winning the event. Mrs Lomax-Smith, a successful golfer, tennis player and member of a ladies’ rowing team, was also well known for her participation in amateur dramatics, playing the lead actress in several local productions.

In 1905 it was decided at a meeting in Napier that the women’s sections of twelve clubs – including Auckland, Napier, Manawatu, Wanganui, Wairarapa, Hutt-Wellington, Christchurch, Timaru, North Otago and Otago – should affiliate with the Ladies' Golf Union in Great Britain and further autonomy arrived five years later when a meeting in Christchurch decided to form the New Zealand Ladies’ Golf Union as a separate branch of the overseas union.

Eileen Williams from Masterton Golf Club in Wairarapa, was a leading light in the early years of the women’s game, winning the stroke play championship (that was established in 1911) seven times between 1911 and 1925 and the match play competition five times between 1907 and 1922. She became an administrator for many years, a life vice-president, and patroness of the union.

Another woman who made her mark between the wars was Olive Kay, who won nine straight stroke play titles starting in 1926, as well as a couple of NZ Women’s Amateurs in 1930 and 1933, both of which were played at Otago – plus, for good measure, she also won the Women’s Australian Amateur at Victoria in 1933 and Royal Adelaide in 1936. And In the first national stroke play event after WWII in 1946, she played as Mrs G. W. Hollis, winning her tenth title at Titirangi.

A number of English women have savoured success in the competition down the years, including Curtis Cup players Veronica Astley (1955) and Julia Greenhalgh (1963). More recently, former English Girls’ champion Shelley McKevitt defeated Australian Nikki Garret 3&1 in the final at Mount Maunganui in 2003.

In the new millennium, Cecilia Cho and Lydia Ko, both Korean-born golfers based in New Zealand, have made golf popular for women, particularly among younger players. Cho won the NZ Women’s Amateur in 2009 at Titirangi then the following year at Hastings before Ko got her name etched on the trophy in 2011 when she won at Russley.

What has since happened to Ko is quite remarkable, starting with her triumph at the US Women’s Amateur in 2012. Later that year, she won the Canadian Women’s Open, becoming the first amateur player in over forty-three years to win an LPGA Tour event – and if that wasn’t enough, she repeated the feat at the same championship a year later before turning professional and going on to perform remarkably well in her first few years on tour.

The women’s governing body for golf in New Zealand changed its name to Women’s Golf New Zealand in 1996, before amalgamating in November 2005 with its male counterpart to form New Zealand Golf.

Nowadays, the New Zealand Women’s Amateur championship comprises a 2-day 36-hole stroke play qualifying phase, which reduces the field at the start of Day 3 to 32 players. After two rounds of match play, the eight remaining players are involved in quarter final and semi-final ties on Day 4 before the 36-hole final determines the winner on the last day.

Until 2020, Christchurch had hosted the tournament 12 times, Otago had staged it 11 times and it has been held at the following four clubs on 7 occasions: Auckland, Napier, Nelson and Paraparaumu Beach.

The following courses aren’t listed below as they’re currently not included in any of our New Zealand rankings: Akarana (1971), Huapai (2000) , Miramar (1896, 1903, 1925, 1954), Murwali (2006), Springfield (1978), Tauranga (1991), Timaru (1932) and Whangerai (1966).