Golf: Ratahi, Snow unbeaten

Tyrone Ratahi and Chris Snow have emerged as the top matchplay exponents in the Senior A men's pennant series which concluded when St Clair won the final last Saturday.

Ratahi (Otago) won seven from seven while Snow (St Clair) won all of his six games, giving both golfers a 100% winning record.

The pair is followed by Nick Borren (Otago) on 89%, Michael Smith (Otago) on 83% and Brent McEwan (St Clair) with 80%.

Unfortunately only one or possibly two of the leading five matchplay exponents look set to trial for Otago teams during the next few months.

Borren played at No2 position last year and will be a definite starter this year, while Snow is looking at the time and commitment required before putting his name forward for this year's trials.

Ratahi has cited family commitments for not trialling, while Smith has not put his name forward in recent years.

McEwan retired from all representative golf after playing his 100th game in Invercargill last December.

Former rugby player Ben Patston (Otago) also featured well in the series, with eight wins and one half from 11 outings.

Michael Ormandy (St Clair) joins the leading masters (over-40) golfers Andrew Hobbs (Island Park), Simon Hollyer (North Otago) and John McIntee (Otago), all with a 75% winning record.

Places are up for grabs in this year's senior team, with Duncan Croudis turning professional and McEwan retiring.

Otago has a good record during the past two years, winning the SBS invitational last year and making the Toro final in 2014 and 2015.

The pennant statistics involve only the coastal golfers, but the leading Central Otago golfers will ensure tough competition for places.

Fraser MacLachlan (Millbrook) played at No4 last year and boosted his chances by winning the South Island championships at St Clair in February.

There is also a plethora of youthful talent in Central.

Last year's reserve Inia Logan (Wakatipu Junior) is leading the charge while Sungwoo Han (Queenstown) made the eight-man team last year.

As trial strokeplay tournaments get under way, the selectors also need to give serious consideration to those players who demonstrate successful matchplay skills.

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