Just as it should have been, golf was the winner during a celebrity team challenge at Highlands Motorsport Park in Cromwell yesterday.
The motorsport event was held as part of the build-up to the BMW New Zealand Open, at Arrowtown, from tomorrow until Sunday.
Sporting rivalries and some mild sledging were to the fore as Team Golf (from left) Steve Williams, Michael Hendry and Brad Kennedy took top honours from Team Rugby: Andrew Mehrtens, Jeff Wilson and Justin Marshall. Team Cricket (Mark Richardson, Graeme Swann and Nathan Astle) was third.
The sportsmen, who are all competing in the golf open, completed a timed ''tag'' race around a slalom course, an acceleration and braking test and an ''ice'' slalom, on a water surface, to allow drifting.
The golf team finished two points ahead of its rugby rivals and four points ahead of the cricket team.
''If you were delivering pizzas, a lot of them would be free,'' Richardson taunted after a slow round by Wilson.
Mehrtens said it was disappointing his team hadn't won: ''I heard the winners were all getting a car each''.
He said Swann had ''broken'' the BMW car he was racing.
''That's the most destructive any English cricketer has been for a long time'', Mehrtens said.
Swann enjoyed his first time at the motorsport park and said he planned to return with his 4-year-old son.
