It was deja vu for the Otago golfers, who also played Waikato in the final at St Andrews in Hamilton last year, which ended in an identical result - a 4-1 loss.
Despite the loss in the final, Otago golf has capped off a successful year, with the juniors winning in Cambridge in October while this same men's team blitzed the SBS stroke play event, winning by 28 shots, three weeks ago.
Winning the final was always going to be a tough ask with the star-studded Waikato quintet boasting four New Zealand representatives.
It was a fitting finale for Otago's retiring stalwart Brent McEwan, who was the only Otago player to notch a win in the final.
He lost to South Island champion Denzel Ieremia on the last green in Hamilton last year but took his revenge, leading throughout the round to be four up with as many to play.
But he lost the next two holes to Ieremia, stemming the tide with a par 3 on the 17th hole to close out the match.
Duncan Croudis, Nick Borren and Chris Snow all went down on the 15th green leaving No 4 Fraser MacLachlan with the task of reducing the losing margin.
He was square with two holes to play but a costly three putt on the 17th green put him one behind and the match finished on the final green.
In the morning, Waikato was fortunate to make the final after a tough tussle with Northland which had made the playoffs for the first time since 1987.
The teams were two-all going on to the final hole, leaving the No 1 players to fight it. Otago supporters were hoping for a Northland win after downing that team in section play but Luke Toomey, later named the player of the tournament, sank an 8m putt for a birdie three, beating Luke Brown to make the final.
Otago's semifinal opponent was Bay of Plenty, a team which has won seven of the last 12 titles and was favoured to make the final.
At times, Croudis had difficulty hitting fairways, turning three down to William Howard, and he failed to make any inroads on the back nine, losing on the 15th green.
Nick Borren accounted for Landyn Edwards while McEwan suffered his second loss, going down to left-handed Sam Davis on the final green.
MacLachlan lost the second hole but won the next four holes to take control in his match with Jordan Golding.
Golding reduced the margin to one after winning the 10th but MacLachlan responded, grafting out the back nine for a final green win.
A dogged Snow had a close match against Bay's Henry Spring but finished strongly to post a win with one hole to spare.
