It was a great week for the Otago Blue men's pennant team which scored six points and 11 games to close the margin on the top St Clair team.
Otago Blue gained three points and six games when North Otago defaulted after the scheduled catch-up tie was rained off two weeks ago.
The Balmacewen top team received three more points and five games after beating the club's B team 5-1 yesterday morning.
The weekend results put St Clair in front with 22 points and 34.5 games while Otago Blue is in second place with 19 points, one game fewer than St Clair.
Which team will host the final will be decided next Saturday when the top two teams meet on the St Clair course.
Meanwhile, Island Park looks set to make the playoffs after beating North Otago on its Waldronville course on Saturday.
For Island Park, Andrew Hobbs won the battle of the No1 players beating Cameron Ryder with three holes to spare.
Monty Wong and Shane Stuart, back playing after a back operation, posted 3 and 1 wins while No4 Jarden Hammond holed a 15m putt on 16th green on his way to winning one hole later.
No3 Simon Hollyer and No5 Scott Clarke both posted wins for the visiting Oamaru team.
St Clair was never threatened by the Chisholm Links team and Chris Snow, Brent McEwan, Stephen Hitchcox and Michael Ormandy all posted wins by convincing margins.
Links No 4 Matthew Heaton gained the only win for the Links team, beating an out-of-form Connor Ross with three holes to spare.
The battle between the No2s was tight. Masters (over-40) golfer Sean Geary halved with Ryan Bellamy.
On Saturday, Otago Blue was too good for the B team as No5 Tyrone Ratahi and No6 Daniel Elder posted convincing margins.
The top two, Nick Borren and Ben Patston, posted 2 and 1 wins while at No4 Jason Hughes edged ahead of Ben Turner on the final green.
Otago Gold's only win came when the team captain John McIntee beat Blue's captain Brandon Hodgson in 15 holes.
- Bill Trewern
