St Clair made a good start in defence of its Coastal Senior A pennant title by beating Chisholm Park by four games to two on the Chisholm Park links on Saturday afternoon.
The win gives St Clair two points, and with four games heads Otago A by half a game in the first of 10 rounds of home-and-away matchplay.
Brent McEwan led St Clair from the front, scoring a 7-under-par 64, giving the Park's No 1 Mark Collie little chance and suffering a 7 and 6 pasting.
St Clair No. 3 Andrew Hobbs had a 13-hole win over Antony McCullough, while at No 6, Paul Brouwer beat Matthew Heaton with two holes to spare.
But it looked set to be a 3-all tie when Sean Geary and Peter Rae posted wins for Chisholm Park, while the Park No 2, Kyle Geary, won the first three holes from Stephen Hitchcox.
But Hitchcox fought back and St Clair had the team win when he was one up playing the final hole.
Meanwhile, it was clear that the Otago Club has split its strength with Otago A scraping home over Otago B by 3.5 to 2.5 at Balmacewen.
For the A team, Tyrone Ratahi, Luke Murdoch and John McEntee posted wins, while Tony Ruddenklau and Mark Patterson featured for the Bs.
Playing at No 2, Murray Edgar snatched a valuable half with Daniel Elder to secure his team's win.
Nick Borren (Otago A) and Michael Smith (Otago B) were not available to play pennants as they clashed in what became an epic 36-hole final of the Otago club's senior championship.
Borren birdied the final two holes to beat Smith one up and take the title.
North Otago had a bye in the first round of pennants.
