Otago remains unbeaten after the second day of competition in the Toro men's interprovincial tournament being played on the North Shore course this week.
Torrential overnight rain delayed the start of play by three hours, and when round three began, Otago scored a valuable 4-1 win over Poverty Bay-East Coast.
Otago's afternoon match against a favoured Manawatu-Wanganui quintet began at 4.30pm with little prospect of finishing in daylight.
Play throughout the day was hindered by incessant rain and the sirens went at 7.30pm requiring Otago to return early today to complete the fourth round.
This contest is evenly balanced, with Otago holding a slender 3 to 2 lead with a few holes to play.
At No 1, Brent McEwan faced a baptism of fire when Josh Munn birdied three of the first four holes and turned 5-under to have a lead of five.
McEwan was dogged on the homeward nine but remained five down with six holes to play.
On the other side of the ledger, Otago No 5 Mark Brooks left the course dormie four up giving each team a probable win.
Games in the balance include Nick Borren (No 2) two up with six holes to play, Sean Masters (No 3) two down with five to go and Jamie Anstiss (No 4) one up with four holes to play.
A win this morning would give Otago 3.5 points and 12.5 games and put the team in a strong position to make the playoffs. Yesterday morning, Masters stood down for the match which promoted Anstiss to No 3, Brooks to No 4 and gave reserve Kayne Wardell his first taste of Toro golf at No 5.
Wardell started strongly and was four up on Quentin Carmichael after the first nine holes.
He remained four ahead after 11 holes but finished par-birdie-par to post an impressive 6 and 5 win on debut.
Brooks had a tighter match against Bay's Kurtis Cortesi at square after the first four holes, but from that point on he dominated winning the fifth, eighth and ninth holes to turn three up.
He started the homeward run with a birdie 4 and won two of the next three holes to finish the match with five holes to spare.
Anstiss was four up after five holes but bogeyed the sixth and seventh holes when he dropped shots at each hole.
He birdied the eighth hole to turn three up and the 12th hole to go four up.
His opponent, Edward Brown, made a bogey 4 at the 13th and Anstiss took the honours by 5 and 4 when Brown ran out of holes.
Otago's leading two golfers had a frustrating morning as both Borren and Brent McEwan were two up coming down the home straight.
Borren dropped shots at the 15th and 16th holes, allowing Andrew Higham to get back to square and the pair halved the final two holes for a tied result.
In a similar manner, McEwan lost the 16th and 17th holes to give up a hard-fought lead of two and finish with a halved match against William Brown.
Otago will finish the match against Manawatu-Wanganui this morning and have a rest day before completing the section play against Tasman and Northland tomorrow.
