The steward's room was thick with smoke by the time the Northland Junior Boys Player of the Year was finally decided and Kaitaia's Sean Masters was judged to have won in a rare photo finish.
Horse racing metaphors aside, the decision was more than difficult to make with Waipu's ChaseMcKeown, The Pines' Luke Brown and Masters all in contention after achieving a high level of success during the 2012 season.
All three were members of the Whangarei Boys High School Team which won the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships in September. Brown won the Northland senior matchplay and strokeplay titles, while McKeown won the prestigious Bream Bay Classic but it was Masters' consistent performances at regional and national events, which won him the title.
The Whangarei Boys High School student is currently sitting at number 40 on the NZ Order of Merit standings; his average score over par from the 13 competitions used to determine the winner of the Northland title, is a tidy three.
The three Boys High players will turn out for a young but strong Northland senior team as they battle Auckland, Waikato and the Bay of Plenty for the Garrard Shield this weekend. Given their form and recent near miss at the recent quadrangular, hopes are high they can bring the trophy home.
There wasn't the same competition in the Northland Junior Girls Player of the Year with Northern Wairoa's Jodi Macalister winning for the second year in a row. Her first card was entered into DotGolf on 13th December 2008 - not quite four years ago and the award - and her inclusion in the Northland Senior Women's team is testament to how quickly she has taken to the game.
She is now both a junior and senior representative for Northland and is still not 15-years-old. She recently shot a 70 off the stick in atrocious conditions at a Maori golf tournament at her home course and will be playing next weekend in the strokeplay Champion of Champions competition and is expected to be competitive.
