Bogey avoidance name of the game for Otago in Manawatu

Experienced Otago players Ben Patston (left) and Duncan Croudis watch youngster Connor Howes tee off at Balmacewen. Howes was later ruled out with an injury. PHOTO: STEPHEN JAQUIERY

Otago will again hope to upset the more favoured sides at the New Zealand men’s interprovincial at the Manawatū Golf Club this week. Hayden Meikle gets some final thoughts from Otago captain Duncan Croudis.

Last year

Otago found the going relatively tough in Christchurch, winning just two of their six games and finishing sixth in division two.

The draw

Tricky, to be fair.

Otago strike Manawatu-Whanganui, who are usually decent, on the opening morning. This afternoon presents a daunting challenge against back-to-back champions Auckland.

Northland and Tairawhiti tomorrow will complete a challenging stretch of four matches in two days, by which point Otago could still be well in the hunt for the final, but could also effectively be done.

Waikato (Thursday afternoon) and Taranaki (Friday morning) complete the round robin stage of the tournament.

The interprovincial format has changed this year. While the tournament once featured semifinals and ran into the weekend, it now offers a straight final and a Friday finish.

If Otago can reach the final, it will represent a heck of an effort.

The squad

Otago suffered a late disruption when rising star Connor Howes suffered a finger injury playing cricket - wrong shape of club, lad - and was ruled out of the tournament.

In comes Raphael Anderson - all of 14 years old - to make his interprovincial debut.

Over to Duncan Croudis to assess the form of his team.

Ricky Kang: "He’s really good, man. He’s sort of made his way into development rep squads with New Zealand Golf, and he’s actually living up in Christchurch now. Ricky has a lot of talent. He’s played a little bit internationally. Playing at No1 can be brutal, but he’ll be fine."

Raphael Anderson: "He made the semifinals of the New Zealand Amateur down at Otatara, and he won the Wanaka 36-hole tournament. He might only be 14 but he’s already proved himself. I don’t think he’ll find it too daunting. I’m confident he’ll do well."

The old stagers (Croudis, Troy Scott, Ben Patston): "We’re all playing well. We had Central v Metro in Alex, which was a good hit-out. We’re all practising hard and preparing as well as we can. Hopefully we all perform."

The course

Manawatu was established in 1895, one year before the Otago Golf Club moved to Balmacewen. It humbly claims to have New Zealand’s "best golf club cafe, bar and events centre".

The classic tree-lined parkland course has hosted the New Zealand Open five times and the New Zealand Amateur eight times, and well-performed professionals Grant Waite, Craig Perks and Tim Wilkinson all spent their early years at Manawatu.

Croudis played at the course the last time it hosted the interprovincial - "13 or 14 years ago, which shows how old I am" - and the Otago team got some good recent insight from Queenstown-based LIV professional Ben Campbell.

"We were lucky enough to have Ben jump on a Zoom with us for an hour and a-half. He was a member there for three or four years.

"That was a pretty good, detailed look at the course. Ben won the New Zealand PGA there in 2018 and he was really good around mindset, preparation and how he plays the course. It was really valuable.

"Ben was actually going to come up to watch us but he got into the Australian Open at Royal Melbourne."

Croudis’ keys to success

"You’ve got to start well. We’ve got a challenging start, and you’ve got to go well on day one or you risk relying on other results.

"It’s a long week, so you really need to stay positive and play for each other.

"Around that track, it will be about missing in the right places and keeping it in play, more bogey avoidance than making a whole lot of birdies. Manawatu requires a bit of thinking and strategy. It’s a good test."

Men behind the men

Otago will have a couple of managers who know all about succeeding on the greens.

Golf Otago boss Mahal Pearce had an outstanding professional career highlighted by his New Zealand Open win in 2003, while an interesting addition is New Zealand bowls great Mike Kernaghan.

"Mahal has obviously done a lot in golf," Croudis said.

"He’s always super helpful at a tournament like this.

"Kerny’s great. He won a Commonwealth Games medal as an athlete himself, and he’s done a lot around coaching and high-performance stuff for New Zealand bowls, so he’ll be awesome. There’s a lot of similarities between bowls and golf, and he’s really good around mindset stuff. We’re super lucky to have him with us."