GOLF - Golfers aim for top-10 finish

Northland golf manager Graeme Hill isn't putting any pressure on his charges as they play their practice round today before the start of the Toro Interprovincials in Nelson tomorrow.
"I'm not being a pessimist but this year I think a top-10 finish would be a good placing to aim for," Hill said.
The team finished in a best-ever sixth place last year but the team this year is rebuilding with three of its five players - Kaitaia's Brett Dormer, Mangawhai's Lee Newman and Gavin Welsh - without any interprovincial experience.
"That's why it's going to be so tough for us this year, only Brad and Gary have been there before at the interprovincial level - the rest haven't."
The top two players, Sherwood Park's Gary-John Hill and Wellsford's Brad Bonnington are, despite their relative youth, by far the most experienced players in the team and are both carrying good form into the matchplay competition, meaning a lot of responsibility for the team's performance will fall on their shoulders.
One thing the players have going for them is they have already played some tough matches in their warm-up tournaments - such as the recent Garrard Shield _ where they earned a encouraging 5-5 halve against one of the pre-tournament favourites Bay of Plenty.
The Bay have won four out of the last six interprovincial titles and they are expected to be challenged the hardest by the Auckland teams, North Harbour and Auckland. History is on Auckland's side, with all three previous interprovincial titles held in Nelson since the event began in 1951 going their way.
Both Auckland sides are filled with players who have to withstand fierce competition just to make it into the team.
"We haven't really had that luxury this year but we've got players who can shoot low numbers on their day and are capable of winning us some games," Hill said.
Getting the idea across to the new Northland players that everyone's beatable on the day will be Hill's constant refrain at the Greenacres Golf Club.
Hill is aware that this year's tournament could be his son Gary-John's last year as Northland No1 so he is keen to blood all the new boys at Nelson for the future.
Another Mangawhai golfer, Gene Wintle, is the reserve but Hill is planning on playing him at every opportunity.
"We're taking him as our sixth player and not a reserve. We'll have a talk when we get down there as to when we'll put Gene in the team. It'll be up to the players as to who's place he'll be taking ."
Fifteen teams will compete for the title in two divisions. The top two in Northland's group go through to the semifinals on Saturday morning and playoff against top two teams in the other division, which contains Wellington, Tasman, Waikato, Auckland, Canterbury, Manawatu/Wanganui, Otago. The semifinal winners play the final on Saturday afternoon.
• Northland's Draw: Round 1 (Tue) AM: v Poverty Bay/EC; R2 PM: v Southland; R3 (Wed) AM bye; R4 PM v Hawkes Bay; R5 (Thu) AM v Aorangi; R6 (Fri) AM v North Harbour; R7 PM v Taranaki.