Golf: BoP out to emulate men

Otago No 1 Laura Hoskin plays from a greenside bunker on the 11th hole during her 4 and 3 win over Canterbury's Sylvie Williams in the seventh round of the New Zealand women's interprovincial golf championships at St Clair yesterday morning. Photo by Gerard O'Brien.

Wellington will meet Waikato in the other semifinal on the St Clair course.

Auckland won all six games to finish top of pool one with six points and 22.5 games while Wellington, with five points and 19 games, topped pool two.

Auckland downed Waikato 4-1 yesterday morning in what looked like being a quarterfinal until Otago intervened.

Otago beat Canterbury 3-2, costing the red-and-blacks any chance of making the semifinals and making the Auckland-Waikato match of little consequence.

The logjam in pool two was broken early when Wellington grabbed top spot by beating Southland with a game to spare.

This left a head-to-head battle between the Bay team and North Harbour to decide the fourth semifinalist and Bay won 3-1.

Otago No 1 Laura Hoskin led the way in style in the upset win over Canterbury and was in front for most of the round.

Hoskin did not let Canterbury's Sylvie Williams back into the game on the back nine eventually winning with three holes to spare.

Susan Greig continued her winning streak, easily beating Canterbury reserve Fiona Gebbie, who came in to play at No 5.

Greig also led throughout the match and won the par-3 16th hole to finish the match.

With Liz McRae (No 3) and Dale Dagg (No 4) trailing throughout, the team results came down to the battle between the No 2 players.

Jo Hicks-Beach was square with Elisha Crosbie for most of the front nine but drew ahead on the homeward run.

Hicks-Beach led by two with three to play and went dormie 2-up when the pair halved the short 16th hole.

A determined Hicks-Beach left nothing to chance, winning the penultimate hole to win 3 and 1, giving Otago its third game. The win not only shut Canterbury out of the semis, but it also elevated Otago to two points and 14 games.

This placed Otago fifth in pool one and it will now play off with Southland this morning to decide the ninth and 10th places.

Inspired by yesterday's win over Canterbury, Otago will be out to avenge the recent Salisbury Cup loss to Southland.

Interprovincial
Today's draw

7.30am: Auckland v Bay of Plenty (semifinal).
8.05am: Waikato v Wellington (semifinal).
8.40am: Canterbury v Manawatu-Wanganui (fifth-sixth).
9.15am: Taranaki v North Harbour (seventh-eighth).
9.50am: Otago v Southland (ninth-10th).
10.25am: Hawkes Bay v Northland (11th-12th).
11am: Aorangi v Southland (13th-14th).
1pm: Final.