Otago has selected some new names but is missing its No1 for the South Island interprovincial championships at St Clair Golf Club next week.
The side includes new boys Jacob Bellamy, Parker Aluesi and Will Young as the reserve, while there are still the experienced hands of Duncan Croudis, Brandon Hodgson and Ben Patston.
Callum Judkins, who has been in good form of late, will fill in for Inia Logan in the No1 spot, the No2 spot going to Croudis.
Otago won the championships last year so will be keen to repeat that result.
The championships will be one of the last chances for players to make a statement before the five-player side is picked for the national provincial championships in Auckland late next month.
Logan played No1 for Otago at the championships last year and still hopes to make the national tournament this year but is unavailable to play at St Clair on October 17-18.
He is lining up in the Taranaki Open on the Charles Tour in what shapes as a high-class top event.
Logan (21) is going to face hardened professionals such as Michael Hendry and Josh Geary, while Queenstown professional James Anstiss is also lining up.
Logan is like many of us — his year has not gone to plan but he is just getting on with it.
The young Cromwell golfer was in Asia at the start of the year playing but returned home when Covid-19 struck.
He had been working for family and friends in a variety of jobs since back in Cromwell but still had plans, he said.
"I’m just waiting for the borders to open. It is frustrating but there are a lot of people worse off then me. I’ve been lucky really with the help I’ve had and being able to still play golf."
Logan will also line up in the New Zealand amateur championships at the Poverty Bay Golf Club in Gisborne following the Taranaki Open. There are two rounds of stroke play, the top 32 players then moving to a matchplay format.
Logan has been in good form. He won the 36-hole Arrowtown Open last Saturday, hitting a 1-over 141, which was two shots ahead of Queenstown’s Craig Palmer who was playing as a professional. He felt he played well in tricky windy conditions.
At the Cromwell Open the next day, Logan finished second to Croudis by one shot. Logan was sitting in first, four shots ahead, playing the 34th hole. But he hit to the right, going out of bounds, and eventually ended up with a quadruple bogey. He then bogeyed the last to enable Croudis to get up for the win.
It was again a windy day in Cromwell and Logan said he was not too disappointed to lose as Croudis had played well and it had been a long weekend playing 72 holes.
