Ash Barty, Kelly Slater and Ricky Ponting are among the multitalented sports stars in action in the pro-am component of the NZ Open.

Barty will take a no-stress attitude into her high-profile pro-am pairing with good mate and DP World Tour player Anthony Quayle.

The pro-am component of the $A1.69 million tournament at Millbrook Resort in Queenstown draws comparisons with the storied events at Pebble Beach and the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews.

Eleven-time world surfing champion Slater is a high-profile addition to this year’s field, which also includes Barty, former Australian Test cricket captain Ponting, his long-time NZ adversary Stephen Fleming and ex-All Blacks greats Jeff Wilson and Israel Dagg.

Since retiring from tennis to focus on her young family, former tennis world No.1 Barty has had little to time to devote to golf, another of her sporting loves.

But the former Wimbledon, French Open and Australian Open champion is much looking forward to teaming up with Quayle from Thursday, when she will play off a handicap of four.

“This is a beautiful place to visit, a beautiful place to play golf, so it’ll be nice to dust the cobwebs off the clubs,” the 29-year-old said.

“I’ve played two rounds of golf in two years, so the form is pretty scarce.

“The good thing is I’m fresh and there are no demons, so what could possibly go wrong?”

Barty contacted Quayle a couple of months ago and he was more than happy to sign on as her playing partner in the pro-am.

“It’s kind of all worked out really well,” he said.

“For such an incredible athlete, each time I’ve asked her how her lead-in to this event has been she’s like, ‘Oh, it’s just terrible, the game’s terrible, I just haven’t played enough’.

“Then I was watching her hit a few putts with a custom Wimbledon Odyssey putter.

“She holed about eight in a row and I’m like, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. You could be a bit of an over-achiever here’.”

–AAP