All three teams were tied with one win. Otago finished first with 10.5 games, Aorangi second with 10 games and Southland third with 9.5 games.
Otago beat Southland by a 6 to 4 margin but went down to a relatively unrated Aorangi team after managing only four wins and a-half.
Only three of 30 players emerged with two wins.
These were Michael Ormandy (Otago), Sam Brinsdon (Southland) and the Aorangi No1 Daniel Perham.
Seven other golfers were unbeaten: Ryan Bellamy and Joseph Hancock from Otago, Jeremy Hall, Tegan Proudfoot and Leith Campion (Southland), Jeff Hewitt and Jeremy Duckmanton (Aorangi).
It was a nail-biting finish and when a three-way tie looked certain, it was a countback of games that would be required to find the winning team.
Otago’s No9 Joseph Hancock came back from three down yesterday morning to halve his match with Aorangi’s Jeremy Duckmanton and clinch the valuable half and the win.
Aorangi, which struggled to get a team together, would have finished on top, had Hancock not come from behind.
The next outing for Otago golfers trialling will be at Arrowtown on Saturday and their last chance to impress will be the Otago match play championships at Balmacewen, at Labour Weekend.
The selectors will then name eight players to compete in the South Island teams’ tournament at St Clair in early November.
