Iles won the South Island 72-hole stroke-play championship at Waitikiri by eight shots two years ago before taking the North Island equivalent by four strokes at Gisborne soon after.

On Sunday he bagged the North Island title at the Ngamotu course in New Plymouth by a shot from Taranaki No. 1 Troy Ropiha and on Thursday he will look to add the South Island crown at the Fairhall course in Blenheim.

A field of 90 will contest the 72-hole championship over the four day and Iles will have six of his fellow Titleist national squad members in opposition including in-form Te Aroha amateur, Mathew Holten, who partnered Iles to win the Australian foursomes by two shots in Melbourne recently.

The victory of Iles, who plays out of the Manor Park club in Wellington, was well received last Sunday as it was his individual tournament success since recovering from a life-threatening head injury after a fall from a golf cart in the United States nine months ago.

He did not rush his rehabilitation, but the sure and steady progress bore fruitful rewards when he upped the ante to finish six-under par at Ngamotu and win the North Island title by one shot. He was under par for his first three rounds and par for his last.

While Iles will be the focus of attention at Fairhall, there will be considerable interest as well in the performance of Holten and Geary (Tauranga).

Holten won the prestigious Riversdale Cup from an international field in Melbourne recently as well as the Australian foursomes title with Iles. The former New Zealand Eisenhower reserve finished equal third on 284 at Ngamutu, just two shots behind Iles.

Geary was in sensational form late last year, the North Island title just one of many as he played his way into the Eisenhower team and then finished fifth at the world amateur teams' tournament in Puerto Rico.

He started this year spectacularly, eclipsing his rivals in the New Zealand under 23 72-hole stroke tournament at Hastings, finishing on a record 264 and an astonishing 12 shots clear of fellow international Doug Holloway (Maraenui).

Geary and Hamilton's Mark Purser missed the North Island championship as they were still contesting the match-play competition in the Australian amateur championship. Both bowed out in the quarter-finals, Geary losing at the 19th to the eventual winner, Scot Eric Ramsay, and Purser succumbing to the runner-up, Victorian Andrew Tampion, who won last year's Shirley open.

Powerful-hitting New Zealand representative, Riki Kauika (Manor Park), will defend the title he won at Oreti Sands in Invercargill last year, and other strong contenders include Eisenhower international Kevin Chun (Auckland), Andrew Henare (Manor Park), 2000 North Island champion Mark Smith (Springfield), and Canterbury's top trio of Brad Stuart, Andrew Searle, and Nic Fry.

Source - NZGA