Hollywood movie star Don Cheadle, a celebrity playing in the New Zealand PGA Pro-Am Championship this weekend is blown away by Queenstown.

Cheadle, who arrived at noon on Monday has already tweeted about the beauty of the Wakatipu.

“In Queenstown. Breathtaking. Playing with the Prime Minister in a couple of days.Here with the whole brood. Life’s pretty good right now,” Cheadle tweeted.

Cheadle, an actor in hit films like Hotel Rwanda and Ocean’s Eleven  was joined on the AirNZ flight down from Auckland by 14-year-old star Kiwi golf amateur Lydia Ko.

Ko showed the boys how it's done during an inflight putting challenge down the aisle of the plane when she sunk her ball. Cheadle, who had a crack along with some passengers, missed his shot. Passengers could win tickets to the tournament at The Hills as well as Callaway golf gear.

Cheadle and Ko will play an amateur seeding round at the Jack’s Point course on Friday before linking up with the pros for the Pro-Am component of the tournament at The Hills on Saturday and Sunday.

The leading contender for the pro championship Brendan Jones, a top Australian golfer ranked 80 in the world, arrived on Monday and has been playing practice rounds at The Hills the past few days.

The championship, in which a 132-strong field of pros play for the McDougall Cup, kicked off at 7.30am today (Thursday).

(Story excerpted from Ryan Keen's article on scene.co.nz)
Image: Brendan Jones in a bunker