Golf: Geary returns to favourite’s tag at Taranaki Open

Golf NZ

When the Summerset Charles Tour rolls into New Plymouth Golf Club for the UNLIMIT Taranaki Open from 7–10 May, Bay of Plenty professional Josh Geary will arrive as the man the rest of the field is measuring itself against – and with good reason.

Geary's relationship with the Taranaki Open borders on the dynastic. His 2023 victory featured a final-round 66 capped by a 35-foot eagle putt on the 18th, good enough to win the tournament and seal the Summerset Charles Tour Order of Merit title in the same afternoon.

He was beaten by Mark Brown in 2024 but returned in 2025 and won again, claiming a third-successive season crown in the process.

Few players have made Ngamotu their own quite like Geary, and he will be looking to take advantage of his home-course familiarity after a ninth-place finish and a mixed four rounds at the Autex Muriwai Open on the West Coast.

Geary said he tends to find success in New Plymouth as the typical Taranaki conditions allow him to lean on his short game when the wind gusts.

"When it gets windy there usually, I guess I've got a decent ability to flight the ball, which helps in those conditions. And then, you know, when everyone's missing a few more greens, historically my short game's been pretty tidy, so I'm able to scramble pretty well."

After a mixed week at Muriwai by his standards — rounds of 75, 65, 74 and 65 — Geary said a niggle in his back would hopefully not resurface during his title defence.

"The body didn't feel too good on those two bad days, and it kind of felt really good on the other two good days... I just struggled a little bit. The back was a little bit locked up on round one and round three."

Keeping the back in good shape and trusting his process around Ngamotu would be the key to a successful defence, Geary said.

"Just trying to get a hold on that and try and get that working this week. And if I can keep that functioning for all four days, we should be in with a good chance."

Standing in his way is a field in considerable form. Tyler Wood is the man of the moment after one of the more dramatic comebacks in Summerset Charles Tour history – nine shots back of the lead after 36 holes at Muriwai, the Ngahinepouri Golf Club professional conjured rounds of 64 and 66 to win by three and bank his second Charles Tour title.

Wood described the Muriwai weekend as when all parts of his game "finally began to click," and players in that kind of rhythm rarely switch it off after one event.

Kerry Mountcastle arrives with his own sense of ambition; the Manawatu-based professional won the season-opening Super 6s before leading through 54 holes at Muriwai, only for Wood's closing 66 to deny him.

His consistency to begin the 2026 season — which saw him contend at the 105th New Zealand Open as well as on the Summerset Charles Tour — underlines a player whose ambitions stretch beyond domestic titles.

51-year-old Mark Brown won the 2024 Taranaki Open in a sudden-death playoff against Geary after a pulsating final round, and finished three back at Muriwai to show his game remains capable of competing at the sharp end.

Mitchell Kale, who placed tied-fifth in his debut tournament as a professional at Muriwai, will be looking to challenge the established names and back up the runner-up performance that earned him Top Amateur honours at Ngamotu last year.

Set between Mount Taranaki and the Tasman Sea, Ngamotu's par-72 layout has hosted four New Zealand Opens since its establishment in 1912. The 176-yard par-3 "Dell" — an elevated tee shot across a pond to a green guarded by black iron sand bunkers — and the suspended 136-yard "Moses" above the water are the holes that tend to separate fields, particularly when the Tasman wind picks up as the week progresses.

Geary has navigated all of it before.

The question is whether, in 2026, the rest of the field can catch him.