Coming off a morning bye, Otago won a hard fought battle against Hawke's Bay in the afternoon, but it was also other results in section two which helped Otago's cause.
Two of the seven division two teams go forward to the playoffs on Saturday and favoured Canterbury and Southland each lost a contest yesterday.
North Harbour beat Canterbury by a 4 to 1 margin in the morning, while Southland succumbed to lowly Poverty Bay-East Coast by a 2 to 3 margin in the afternoon.
The combination of results gives Otago one point and three games with five rounds yet to be played.
Otago No1 Fraser MacLachlan was up early, turning two ahead of Bay's Ben Swinborne and increasing his lead to three with six holes to play.
But the Millbrook golfer lost 13, 14 and 16 to return to square and was required to halve the final par 5 hole to give Otago the vital winning margin.
Brandon Hodgson (No2) was also two up at the turn but lost three holes early on the homeward run to go one down to Mako Thompson.
Hodgson won 14 to get back to square and hit an amazing 3 iron to within 5m of the cup on the final par 5 hole to win the match.
Otago No3 Duncan Croudis continues to have problems off the tee but hung in the game to stick with Adam Winter.
He hit a three wood to within a metre of the cup on the final hole for a conceded eagle three to snatch a valuable half.
Michael Smith birdied the second hole to take an early lead, but Tyson Tawera birdied the ninth and eagled the 10th to turn the tables.
Smith had winning chances on 12, 13 and 14 but eventually went down on the 17th green.
