They continued a fabulous and undefeated week at the New Zealand men’s interprovincial at the Manawatu Golf Club by posting two more wins yesterday.
After wrapping up a 5-0 sweep of Tairawhiti in a match that started late on Wednesday, they beat Waikato 3½-1½ in the afternoon in a match highlighted by a hole in one for Ben Patston.
It left Otago second on the table with 4½ points, behind only Bay of Plenty — who are a perfect five from five — with this morning’s final round to play.
If Otago beat Taranaki, they will play in the afternoon final, and they could still scrape in if they halve the morning match or even lose, if other results go their way.
The men in blue have not had their name on the New Zealand interprovincial trophy since 1982, led by captain and No1 Kim McDonald at Balmacewen.
"We’re just thinking of that next shot off the tee and not getting too far ahead of ourselves," Croudis said last night.
"Everyone’s feeling good but we are just going to stay in the present and see what happens."
Otago have done a superb job of staying focused all week.
After the long rain rain delay and late start on Wednesday, they came out early yesterday and smoothly completed the dominant win over Tairawhiti, their second straight 5-0 victory.
Ricky Kang started the rout at No1 with a 7 & 6 win over Jason Devery, and 14-year-old debutant Raphael Anderson completed it with a 5 & 3 win over Jace Brown.
The afternoon win over Waikato was headlined by left-hander Patston’s ace — the second of his golfing career — on the 132m fourth hole.
"One bounce, spun back and it’s in the hole, boys," a grinning Patston told Golf Otago’s social media channel.
Patston, in contention for player-of-the-tournament honours, continued his phenomenal week by posting a fifth straight win, while Kang stayed undefeated with his fourth point of the week.
Perhaps the biggest story of the tournament is youngster Anderson.
The Wanaka wonder was a late promotion from the reserve spot and, after a loss in the opening match, he has peeled off four straight wins.
If the Otago men continue that sort of form today, they might be hard to stop.
At Ashburton, the Otago women suffered a 5-0 loss at the hands of Canterbury in the morning.
That scoreline was deceiving, however, as Yoonae Jeong, Anahera Koni and Sophia Park all took their matches to the final hole.
Otago beat Tasman 3-2 in the afternoon to move to eighth in the table.
Jeong and Park had 2 & 1 wins, while Savannah Neal had an excellent 3 & 2 win at the foot of the order.
The Otago women play 10th-placed Taranaki today.
