Susan Greig beat Annabel Evans on the 17th green in the final to win the Otago women's matchplay title in fine conditions at Balmacewen yesterday afternoon.
Greig qualified in top slot on Saturday morning with a 78 and had a resounding 6 and 5 win over Carol Dalton in the first round of matchplay.
But yesterday was a tougher assignment for the former Otago No1, who had two closer tussles against Robyn Chambers and Evans in the semifinal and final respectively.
Brenda Sutherland won the women's plate event with a 3 and 2 win over Tracey Storer in the final yesterday afternoon.
Meanwhile, the men's championship will continue today with Duncan Croudis playing Nick Borren, while Chris Snow will meet Scott Hellier, the sole Southland player in the field.
Croudis beat Ben Patson and Brandon Hodgson on his way to the final four while Borren accounted for Connor Ross and Brent Butler.
Hellier beat Matthew Crawford and Fraser MacLachlan, and Snow downed Peter Lamb and Kayne Wardell for his two wins.
Wardell, the winner of the event two years ago, provided the shock result in the first round, eliminating Otago captain and second top qualifier Brent McEwan with one hole to spare.
Croudis qualified top on Saturday with rounds of 68 and 71 and continued good form in the first two matchplay rounds.
The match between Croudis and defending champion Borren should be a close tussle this morning and could decide the playing order in the Otago team which will compete in Westport next weekend.
Balmacewen's Harry Smith carded 78 in the first qualifying round but improved by five strokes to ensure he made the championship field.
His improvement was spurred on by a hole-in-one on Saturday afternoon when his 7-iron bounced over the right bunker at the 148m par 3 12th to roll into the cup.
Lydia Ko has returned to the top of the world golf rankings in imperious fashion with a dominant nine-shot victory in the LPGA Taiwan Championship.
The 18-year-old New Zealander fired a 7-under 65 last night to end on 20-under as she continued her stellar recent form.
Ko has now claimed three wins, including her first major, in her past five starts, and has placed outside the top four only once in her last eight tournaments.
The victory in Taipei was also her 10th on the LPGA Tour, making her the youngest player to get to double figures.
Ko headed into the final day at the Miramar Golf and Country Club knowing that finishing runner-up would be enough for her to regain the world No 1 ranking, supplanting South Korean Inbee Park.
Starting with a four-shot lead over the rest of the field, she quickly consolidated her position with four birdies over the first six holes.
Her only slip-up during her round was a dropped shot on the par-3 seventh.
At the par-five 12th, she chipped in for eagle to extend her advantage to seven shots, and there were further birdies on the 14th and 18th. In a distant tie for second were South Koreans So Yeon Ryu and Eun-Hee Ji.
-By Bill Trewern and NZN
