Golf: Future looks bright for intact Northland squad

Lee Neumann

Northland may have missed out on the semifinals on a count-back, but with a couple of old faces set to return next year, the future seems rosy for the men's provincial golf team.

The young Northland team arguably choked in their match against old rivals Auckland at the Toro Interprovincial Golf Championships on Friday, failing to come up with a half that would have seen them through to the semifinals at the Hamilton Golf Club.

Team manager Michael McDonald told the Advocate that two former Northland number-ones, Brad Bonnington and Scott Wightman, have indicated their interest in competing next season and their experience could be what the team needs to get through clutch encounters.

"We'll probably have the same core group of players available and with those two coming back and with a couple of promising juniors like Taylor Gill and Julian Fowler also competing for places we should be right up to the standard we need to go one step further at the Toro next year - so that's pretty exciting," he said.

From this year's team, only captain Lee Neumann is a doubtful starter for next year, as he will be studying full-time.

The team improved markedly on their poor finish last year, but will rue their performance in the final two rounds on Friday where they could only manage a half against North Harbour and a 3-2 loss to Auckland.

"Initially the mood in the team was of bitter disappointment. It was a very, very close call but we'll live and learn from it I guess and we have to take some positives out of it - I mean we were only beaten once in the entire week, so that's pretty massive and hopefully we'll come back next year stronger," McDonald said there was little the team could have done better in their preparation - it just came down to execution.

The lower numbers: No5 Lee Neumann, No4 Sheldon Kearns and No3 Alex Neely all finished with the equivalent of four wins from six round robin games, but the form of No2 Luke Brown (three wins) and No1 Kadin Neho (2 wins) faded after both had bright starts to the week.

"When you're playing in the top two spots you come up against a lot of the national reps and that's never an easy thing to do. Every match is a tough one and you've got to be shooting par or better to be in contention, and even then you might come up against a guy who's five-under for the round," McDonald said.

The nature of this year's competition was extremely tight, as shown going into the final round where five teams, Northland, Wellington, Tasman, North Harbour and Auckland, were all in the running for second place in the division - and the second semifinal spot - behind Manawatu-Wanganui.

Northland, one of four teams to finish on three and a half wins, were relegated to third place on a count-back behind Wellington, who in turn were defeated by Waikato 3-2 in Saturday's semifinal.

Otago beat defending champions Manawatu-Wanganui 3 -1 to reach their first final in 16 years but were beaten 4-1 in the final by Waikato.