Tairāwhiti stick to bottom ranking at men’s golf interprovincials

Neil Hansen had a winning end to the men's national interprovincial golf tournament in Christchurch but his Tairāwhiti team could not lift themselves off the 15th and bottom ranking. Photo / Paul Rickard

Tairāwhiti reps Neil Hansen and William Brown ended the national men’s interprovincials on winning highs but it was not enough to avoid the wooden spoon.

Hansen, at No 5, and Brown, at No 2, had 1-up wins as Tairāwhiti lost 3-2 to Manawatu-Wanganui on the Russley course in Christchurch on Friday afternoon.

It meant the smallest of the 15 competing provinces in the teams’ matchplay tournament retained their ranking of 15 from 2023.

In their other individual matches against Man-Wang, Tairāwhiti No 1 Hukanui Brown lost 6 and 5 to Mitchell Proctor, No 3 Dan Collier lost 6 and 4 to Regan Mcconaghty and No 4 Marcus Gray lost 5 and 3 to William Dunsmore.

Over the week, during which the Russley and Harewood courses were used for the men’s and women’s interprovincials, Tairāwhiti were beaten 3½-1½ by Waikato, 4-1 by Auckland, 3½-1½ by Taranaki, 5-0 by Canterbury and 4-1 by Southland before the Man-Wang clash.

They finished section 1 in eighth place with no team points and 7 individual points.

Auckland defeated Bay of Plenty 3-2 in Saturday afternoon’s final.

Gisborne’s Tessa McDonald, playing at No 2 for Hawke’s Bay in the women’s interprovincials, registered two wins, a half and three losses in her six matches. Two of those defeats were on the 18th.

Hawke’s Bay placed seventh out of the 12 provinces on 2½ team points and 11 individual points.

North Harbour defeated Auckland 3½-1½ in the final.