After an evenly-matched contest over two rounds on the Oreti Sands course in Invercargill on Sunday, the Otago and Southland women's teams tied the fixture 8-8 allowing Southland to retain the Salisbury Cup.
Both teams won four games in the morning which led to an exciting finish with two matches going to the final hole in the afternoon.
Otago No 2 Shani Arona beat Katrina Manaena 1-up while seasoned Southland campaigner Lisa Henderson beat Otago No 3 Kathryn Fletcher by the same margin to even the score.
Otago had an injection of young players this year and the team's performance was a vast improvement on last year's fixture at the Kelvin Heights course in Queenstown.
Arrowtown schoolgirl Shani Arona was the pick of the Otago players, playing par golf in the morning round to beat Robyn Pullar.
She continued her form in the afternoon to post two wins for the day while veteran Liz McRae (Wanaka) also won both her matches by handsome margins.
Otago No 1 Monica Tulisi flirted with the Oreti Sands tussock and several balls, which cost her both matches.
Arona was one of three Arrowtown golfers in the eight-strong team, with Maria Arhanic having a win and a loss and youngest player Laura Hoskin (13) making her debut at No 8.
Hoskin, the daughter of former Otago cricketer Richard Hoskin, suffered two narrow losses but showed she has a bright future in the game.
