With six wins and a half from eight outings, Bay of Plenty won the Freyberg Masters (over-40) tournament which concluded on the Coringa course in Christchurch yesterday.
Aorangi finished in second place, pipping Northland on a countback of games with Canterbury fourth and Otago fifth.
It was pleasing to see four of the five South Island teams in the top six as Southland finished one place behind Otago.
Otago did Aorangi proud by beating a strong Northland quintet in the morning but the South Canterbury golfers lost to Auckland in the final round which cost them the title.
Simon Wright and Robbie Bell (both Aorangi) were the best individuals with seven wins and a half each while Otago No 3 Andrew Hobbs lost yesterday morning which prevented him from a clean sweep.
Otago finished strongly with two wins yesterday beating Northland and Manawatu-Wanganui by a 3 to 2 margin.
The pick of the Otago players were the greenkeeping duo with Hobbs winning seven while Gary Creedy won six of his eight matches.
Special mention to Queenstown's Simon Boland who stepped up to No 1 on three occasions, notching two wins and one half.
Northland had a star-studded line-up with Saali Herewini at No 1 and Kevin Billington at No 3 - both former New Zealand representatives.
But Boland and Greg Johnson accounted for both in the morning matches which both finished on the 17th green.
No 2 Hobbs turned two light and Bob Shirley played solid golf coming home, not letting Hobbs back into the game.
Creedy beat Scott Wilson on the final green while Ken Shaw (No 5) had putting woes and was out of contention at five down at the turn.
In the afternoon, Boland turned three up on Sty Smith but the Manawatu-Wanganui No 1 fought back with birdies on the homeward nine to square the match.
Hobbs returned to the winner's circle downing Malcolm Wells in 17 holes while, in a tight tussle, Johnson eked out a half with Martin Field.
Creedy was behind all the way, eventually losing to Tony Chettleburgh on the 15th green.
Shaw concentrated on his putting at lunch which paid dividends as he beat Kieran Corkill on the 16th green.
