The winning quartet of Brigit Holford, Eva Huang, Marilyn Storey and Linda Nightingale started the final round one shot ahead of Southland and took the title when both teams scored 85 gross stableford points yesterday.
Auckland started well, sharing the first-round lead with North Harbour, while Southland was nine shots back in a share for seventh place after the first round.
But the Southland quartet posted 95 points on Saturday morning, the highest one-round score of the tournament, to take a three-shot lead over Auckland.
Auckland struck back on Saturday afternoon to take its one-shot lead.
Robyn Boniface, the Southland No 1, was the player of the tournament with a total of 127 stableford points for the four rounds.
This was 10 shots better than her nearest rival, Huang (Auckland), with Holford (Auckland) three further points back.
Kathy Olsen, Hawkes Bay/Poverty Bay) had a tournament she will not forget after holing in one on the difficult 17th hole in the final round yesterday.
Meanwhile, the Otago quartet finished in ninth place, with Reany Rust and Lynda Rendall the best performers with 93 stableford points apiece.
• Southland finished with four wins and 19 games to win the South Island Interprovincial teams' tournament played on the Greenacres course in Nelson during the weekend.
The win was testimony to the work of retiring Southland executive officer Bruce Sanford, who has nurtured Southland's young brigade for many years.
The young Southland team beat all comers in close matches to take the title for the first time this decade. Southland's success was evident on the scoreboard with No 6 Tyler McLean posting four wins, while Liam Balneaves (No 3) and David Klein (No 5) were unbeaten with three wins and a-half each.
Otago beat Aorangi 8-0 but the wheels fell off on Saturday, losing to Canterbury by the same margin.
