Josh Kahukura was the toast of Omakau when he joined a list of Otago elite by winning the Otago schoolboys championship at Cromwell beating Samson Kim by 2 and 1 in the final yesterday afternoon.
Kahukura won his way to the final beating Josh Finnie, Damian Rodgers and Dong-Young Kim to record his best tournament performance of the year.
The lead see-sawed on the front nine, with Kahukura holding a slender lead of one at the turn before going two up with a birdie 4 at the 11th.
Kim won the next hole but the margin returned to two at the par 3 14th, but this was short-lived when Kim won the 16th with a par.
However, the match finished one hole later when Kim failed to make a par on the short 17th hole.
Sam McCracken (Southland) won the division one final beating Troi Kingsford (Aorangi) by 4 and 3 while 13-year-old Jonty McKinnell (Roxburgh) beat Josh Vincent (Aorangi) on the final green to win division two.
The senior plate provided the platform for a welcome return to form for Oamaru's Kris Rush who beat Edward Cochrane, Jamie Anstiss and Sungwoo Han to take the title.
Conor Jamison (Chisholm Park) won the division one plate, while division two honours went to Cromwell's Alex Pyper.
Schoolboy golf will continue today when a 10-strong Otago team plays Aorangi for the Piper Cup and Southland for the Ben McCorkindale memorial trophy on the Cromwell course.
