The tail did the wagging as Otago finished third at the South Island men’s interprovincial at the Hororata club at the weekend.
Parker Aluesi, Ben Patston, Jacob Bellamy and Ryan Shuttleworth combined for 11.5 points out of a possible 16 in the No 5 to No 8 slots.
Otago had wins over Aorangi (5-3) and Tasman (5-3), shared the spoils with Southland (4-4), and struggled against perennial champion Canterbury (6.5-1.5).
Playing under the split format thanks to the uneven number of teams, Otago was 2-2 with Southland and led Tasman 3-1 after the Saturday morning round.
There was some low scoring in summery conditions in the afternoon as Otago wrapped up victory over Tasman, and the Highlanders derby came down to the final holes, but could not be split.
Perfect conditions and more low scoring on Sunday played into Canterbury’s hands as it led Otago 3.5-0.5 after the morning, the highlight for Otago a half for Shuttleworth, making his eight-man debut, against Yuki Miya.
On the other side, Otago led Aorangi 3-1 at the crossover.
Canterbury then showed its class in the afternoon, and No 7 Cooper Moore shot 29 for the front nine, though Aluesi finished with a clutch birdie on a par-3 to beat Dean Harvey 5 and 3.
Otago squared the afternoon session with Aorangi, 2-2.
Patston said the Otago team had "fire in the belly" and would be working hard to prepare for the New Zealand interprovincial at Omanu next month.
Canterbury won the South Island title again with four wins and 23 points from a possible 32. Southland pipped Otago for second on countback.
Many of the golfers will be in action in Dunedin next week for the New Zealand Amateur at the Otago Golf Club.
— The Otago junior boys suffered an 11.5-6.5 loss to Canterbury in their representative clash at Hororata.
Lachlan Coutts and Noah Novacek each had two wins and a half for Otago.
— Otago opened the Freyberg Masters in style at the Motueka club yesterday.
A 4-1 win over Hawke’s Bay in the morning was followed by a 5-0 sweep of Manawatu-Whanganui in the afternoon.
Andrew Hobbs (6 and 5), Chris Snow (5 and 4), Paul Hubbard (4 and 3) and John McIntee (1-up) had wins for Otago in the morning.
Those four also won again in the afternoon — Snow was an impressive 4 and 2 winner after being 1-down at the turn — and Rodney Krahenbring joined the party with a 1-up win.
