Southland is the toast of New Zealand golf after winning the
men's interprovincial by beating Bay of Plenty 3-2 in the
final on the Poverty Bay's Gisborne course on Saturday
afternoon.
It is Southland's first win since the inception of the event
in 1951 and the first time a South Island team has won since
Canterbury took the honours in Invercargill in 2000.
The final was a replay of the first-round clash between the
division two teams with the honours going to the Bay team on
that occasion.
However, Southland was strengthened for the final with the
return of No 1 Vaughan McCall, who had been on international
duty in Argentina.
Spectators were urging on the Southland underdogs as the Bay
of Plenty had won six of the previous nine titles.
Southland No 5 Matt Tautari was named the player of the
tournament after winning all eight of his matches during the
week-long tournament.
It was a fitting win for the quintet which, after many years,
will split up during the next few months.
No 2 Cody Harper is turning professional and will undertake
his apprenticeship under the guidance of John Griffin at
Otatara.
Manager Corey Finn did a sterling job keeping his charges up
to the mark but the Queenstown greenkeeper will leave for a
post in Qatar in two weeks.
Otago finished in 12th place with 1 points and 11 games but
the players featured on Saturday as caddies for their
Southern neighbours.
In the final, McCall and Harper posted 2 and 1 wins and, with
Tautari in the clubhouse, with a 3 and 2 victory over Craig
Hamilton, the title was in the bag.
In the morning semifinals, Southland downed Auckland with
three wins and a half, with McCall posting an impressive 4
and 3 win over Auckland No 1 Ryan Fox.
The Southland tail wagged, with Scott Hellier and Tautari
both winning 1-up while Liam Balneaves put the icing on the
cake by halving with Sam An.
The Bay team had been dominant all week and its 3-1 win over
Canterbury in the other semifinal gave it seven wins from as
many starts.
Their semifinal finished early as Brad Kendall (No 1), James
Hamilton (No 3) and Sam Davis (No 4) all posted impressive
wins.
Hamilton won his final match by 2 and 1 over Balneaves for
eight wins but was piped for the top player award by Tautari
from the winning team.
Otago will need to go back to the drawing board when next
year's tournament will be held on the Balmacewen course in
Dunedin.
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