A barrage of birdies by Canterbury No4 Matt McLean on Saturday morning sealed the result of the South Island interprovincial teams tournament, which was played over four rounds at St Clair during the weekend.
McLean was two down to Otago’s Brandon Hodgson with four holes to play but made birdies on 6, 7, 8 and 9 to clinch a valuable half with an in-form Hodgson.
At the end of the match, Canterbury prevailed by a 4.5 to 3.5 margin, giving the team a point while Otago received none.As Canterbury was unlikely to lose to Aorangi, Southland or Tasman, the winner of the fixture was decided at the halfway stage.
Canterbury finished first with four points and 23 games, while Otago matched the game tally of 23 but had only three points.
Otago No1 Fraser MacLachlan joined team-mates Ryan Bellamy (No7) and Michael Ormandy (No8) with four wins.
For Canterbury, 16-year-old Hiroki Miya (No5) and Reid Hilton (No6) had four wins, while Brandon Hodgson (Otago), Tom Parker (Canterbury) and Matt Tautari (Southland) all emerged unbeaten in their four matches.As well as losing to Canterbury on Saturday, Otago beat Southland by a 6 to 2 margin and had to amass as many games against Aorangi and Tasman yesterday.
The team beat Aorangi 7 to 1 and Tasman 6.5 to 1.5, which helped the team match Canterbury’s game tally.
Tasman was third and Southland fourth, while Aorangi emerged with no team win and only seven games out of 32 played.The standard of the golf was high, although incessant rain yesterday afternoon put paid to many birdie chances.
Otago No5 Michael Smith had three wins, his only loss being to Miya on Saturday, but he also featured in a gutsy fightback yesterday.
Playing the front nine second, he lost a ball on the third to go three down to Tasman’s Matthew Grimes with six holes to play.
He won three of the next four to go back to square and when Grimes missed a vital putt on the final green, took the honours.
Otago selectors Jason Hughes and Mahal Pearce were out in force during the weekend and will be deliberating before naming the five players and emergency to compete in the national Toro interprovincial in New Plymouth at the end of this month.
