Kylie Jacoby will be hoping to lead the Northland women's team to victory at Sherwood Park. Photo / John Stone
Northland will be out to defend home turf during the prestigious Toro Interprovincials next week.
Sherwood Park and Mangawhai Golf Club will co-host the 2017 tournament which has an exciting new format with both the men and women playing over the same week.
Sherwood Park is looking an absolute picture, the greens are rolling well and the course has been laid out to a great standard which sets up a potentially big week for the women's side.
Kylie Jacoby will be one to watch for the week as she leads the team as captain and selector, her vast experience through professional and amateur golf will be a big part of the week for the Northland team.
Belinda May is another to keep an eye on in the No 2 spot, the Kamo High School student is playing in her second interprovincial and is definitely one to look out for in the future.
Shardae Bulkeley will be taking some home course knowledge with her as she lines up as the only home club member in the tournament, while Alayna Cox and Jo Taylor will always go down swinging and will be looking to have a solid week leading the team out trying to notch up early wins to get the ball rolling.
The men will be hoping to pick up their first title in 66 years.
Northland No 1 Luke Brown will be a focal point of the talented side and says the home advantage will be good.
"Having the event come up home is a very special thing for us as players," he said.
"We take a huge amount of pride in representing our province and to do it a home and possibly in front of the home crowd especially is even more special and exciting.
"We will go out there with heaps of confidence and tackle each team with the same amount of intensity as if we were playing for the title."
Captain Scott Wightman is looking forward to the opportunity to play on his home track at Mangawhai.
"It's just an awesome opportunity to play in Northland and especially on my home track, it will be great to see our club members and local community out in support of the boys," he said.
"Everybody is so excited to play at home and we know that we've got a solid team that can do the job.
"It's the only opportunity that any of us in the side will probably ever have to play an interprovincial in Northland so we want to take our chances and give it a real shake."
Christian Nitsche is looking forward to his second tilt at the Interprovincial tournament.
"Obviously it's awesome to have the event in Northland and even better that we are playing at Mangawhai which proves time and time again to be one of the best tracks in the North," he said.
"Personally, I'm super excited for the week. We all love playing with the kauri tree on our chest."
Sherwood hosted the men's Interprovincial back in 2002. This will be the first time Mangawhai has hosted the event. Kerikeri Bay of Islands also has the national seniors tournament running the same week so there is plenty of golf to get around across the whole of Northland.
Golf Northland executive officer Sean Doel said the team hoped to see plenty of local support over the tournament.
"Having the Interprovincial tournaments in Northland is something that we only get the chance to do every 15 years so it will be fantastic to see plenty of support for the Northland sides at both Sherwood Park and Mangawhai next week," he said.
"It's a great opportunity for a couple of our Northland clubs to showcase themselves as premium golf courses and also provide a good boost to the local economy with teams and supporters coming from all over the country.
"We'll be going out confident but playing hard to put on a good showing. Hopefully we get a lot of hometown support for what should be a fantastic week of golf."
The women's tournament runs from December 4 to 9 while the men run from December 5 to 9.
Northland squadsWomen: Kylie Jacoby, Belinda May, Shardae Bulkeley, Alayna Cox, Jo Taylor, Jenny Peters, Sherrill Glen (manager) Men: Luke Brown, Scott Wightman, Christian Nitsche, Alex Neely, Kadin Neho, Ben Kennedy, Shaun O'Shea (manager)