Auckland led from start to finish to win the New Zealand women's masters championship over four rounds on the Methven course last week.
Despite dominating throughout, Auckland faded in the final round and the winning margin was reduced to 12 gross stableford points after it had led by 19 points after three rounds.
The team of Lisa Herbert, Sian Kelly, Scarlett Jeon and Brigit Holford started with 96 gross stableford points to have a three-stroke advantage over Bay of Plenty after the first round of the 25th national tournament.
Auckland opened up a lead of seven after the first round over the Bay and increased the lead to 19 strokes over Southland after Bay of Plenty faded in the third round.
The Otago team started on 79 points with Susan Greig leading the way with 29 points in the opening round.
Tracey Storer, with 26 points, and Liz McRae, with 24 points, contributed to the total while Maria Arhanic posted a non-counting score with 22 points.
In the second round, Greig improved to 32 points but Otago slipped to 11th with a two-round tally of 159 points.
In the third round, Greig scored 29 points, Storer 26 and McRae 24 for a total of 247 to remain in 11th place.
Otago eventually finished 12th, Greig once again leading the way with 29 points while the remaining players scored 20 point each.
Individual honours were shared by Catherine Knight (South Canterbury) and Vaha Fatiano (North Harbour) with a total of 133 points. Greig finished in eighth place with 124 points for the four rounds.
