GOLF - Surprise performance just not quite enough

A strong opening performance against eventual champions Bay of Plenty was the stand-out result of the Garrard Shield for the Northland team at the Pukekohe Golf Club over the weekend.
Northland surprised the champions but couldn't quite pull off an upset win. Instead they had to settle for a 5-5 halved match on Saturday morning.
Highlights for the team were wins for Mitchell Price (1up), Gene Wintle (1up) and Brad Bonnington (3/2) while Brett Dormer won his match 3/2 and went on to record a 67 on the par-71 course.
No1 Gary-John Hill halved his game against former Taranaki New Zealand representative Troy Ropiha, while No5 Lee Newman also halved his game.
The side were buoyed by the result but luck didn't follow them into round two on Saturday, they lost 7-3 to Waikato.
Price again won his match (3/2) playing at No9, while Newman (1up) and No8 Martin Duff (4/3) also had good wins.
The final match on Sunday was even more disappointing after the Bay beat Auckland 6-4 in the second round, with Northland fading to a 8-2 defeat.
Dormer and Duff both took leads into the 18th hole only to both concede halves in their matches. Only Hill scored a win beating Ryan Fox 2/1.
In the Ralph Cup for juniors 12-year-old Kayden Neho, playing at No5, won two out of his three matches only conceding the third to a birdie on the 18th. Whangarei's Chris Alexander was the only other winner as the junior team mounted their best result, a 2-3 loss to Waikato in the second round. They lost to Bay of Plenty 1-4 and Auckland 0-5.
Bay of Plenty won the Ralph Cup with three wins. They also defended their Garrard Shield title with two-and-a-half wins ahead of Waikato with two wins and Auckland and Northland in third and fourth respectively.
All of the teams then named their line-ups for the national interprovincial championships, at the Greenacres Golf Club in Nelson, beginning on December 2.
Northland team: 1 Gary-John Hill (Sherwood Park), 2 Brad Bonnington (Wellsford), 3 Brett Dormer (Kaitaia), 4 Lee Newman (Mangawhai), 5 Gavin Welsh (Mangawhai), travelling reserve Gene Wintle (Mangawhai), team manager Graeme Hill.