Wakatipu High School has qualified for the national intercollegiate final in Northland in October by winning the Otago final in convincing style in windy conditions at Balmacewen yesterday.
The team of Samson Kim, Sungwoo Han, Jamie Anstiss and Edward Cochrane finished 17 shots ahead of Otago Boys' High School, while Waitaki Boys' High School was third, two further shots back.
The Queenstown and Oamaru schools were tied at 6-over-par at the turn while Otago Boys' was seven shots off the pace.
But a bizarre series of incidents on the infamous Glen hole, into a headwind, changed the leaderboard dramatically.
Balls flying out of bounds, playing the wrong ball and picking up provisional balls saw Wakatipu and Otago Boys' tied after 12 holes.
But on the final holes the Dunedin golfers fell away while the Wakatipu players finished strongly.
The swing of strength in junior golf is illustrated with eight of the 10 players selected in the age-group teams coming from the Central Otago area.
This is testimony to the coaching and development programme with professionals Ben Gallie and Craig Palmer at the helm.
Samson Kim (Queenstown) and Josh Kahukura shared the best gross on 73 and will join Danielle Price (Queenstown) in the national under-17 Eagles championship in Nelson in October.
