And with a bit of luck an Otago teen might have won the girls championship for the first time since Otago Golf Club professional Shelley Duncan won it in 1984.
Dunedin’s Connor Howes backed up rounds of 72 and 78 with a final round of 72 to claim the boys’ title.
Otago’s Yoonae Jeong was tied with Cherry Lee (Auckland) after 36 holes but Lee clinched the title by one shot in a tense finish.
The event, which is made up of three-person mixed teams all representing 15 Eagles provinces, plus 12 invited Otago golfers, was held over 54 holes in Cromwell earlier this week.
Conditions were cool with blustery winds making low scoring difficult, though it was Cromwell’s more challenging greens that caught a few out.
After 36 holes on Tuesday the best of the boys was Auckland representative Oscar Guo with rounds of 78 and 71 by one from Futures Dunedin club member Howes.
Otago’s Ricky Kang was in third overnight with rounds of 76 and 75 while Canterbury’s Jonathan Fry was fourth with 79 and 73.
However, Howes turned up the heat on Wednesday morning with a solid round to take the title with a combined gross score of 222, while Guo, not helped by an out of bounds tee shot on the 18th, finished five shots back on 227.
Fry (77) had a slight edge on Kang (79) to reverse their placings in the final wash-up.
While the boys had a clear winner, the girls championship went down to the wire and was decided on the 54th hole.
Jeong, from the Millbrook Club, trailed Lee by one shot and had an opportunity to force a playoff on the 18th but her birdie putt slid just past the hole, while Lee chipped close from off the green and sunk her par putt to nab the title.
In the girls’ net competition, Southland’s Xanthia Piggott found the conditions to her liking with scores of 66, 63 and 70 (199), followed by Josie Keast, from Poverty Bay, on 207 and Niamh McGillicuddy, Hawke’s Bay, on 212.
The teams event was won by the Southland trio of Xanthia Piggott, Will Carson and Cooper Boyce with a combined 54 hole Stableford score of 328.
Among the invited players, Toby Gallie, a member of the Futures Wakatipu club, had a 54 hole gross total of 225 (77, 74, 74), six shots clear of Chisholm Links Kairangi Koni on 231.
By Laurel Brent
