Northland struggle in final outing before big tourney

Northland failed to press home their home advantage in the Garrard Shield quadrangular golf tournament held at Waitangi, finishing fourth behind winners and defending champions Bay of Plenty.
Northland went into the tournament hoping to produce a win or two at least in their last warm-up event before the Toro men's interprovincials at Paraparaumu Beach next month but lost 6.5-1.5 to BOP and Auckland and 5.5-2.5 to Waikato.
"It was a bit disappointing, results-wise and really it's another indication of just how hard they're going to have to work if they want to get up there and challenge for a top place at the interprovincials," team manager Roy Pelsky said.
The Northland manager said they couldn't reproduce the same form they had in their last provincial outing where they notched up a rare big win over Waikato.
"I thought we played exceptionally well against Waikato in Ngaruawahia [at the recent quadrangular tournament] where a lot of our players really stepped up to play some really good golf, it was just a shame they couldn't keep it up this weekend."
Apart from No7 Kadin Neho's three wins the pickings were slim for the Northland players, with a win to Brad Bonnington and halves to Sean Masters, Michael McDonald and Gene Wintle.
Northland will go into the interprovincials as underdogs.
"But you never know in this game and if we can manage to get a win we'll certainly savour it and enjoy it for what it's worth," Pelsky said.
The Northland junior team faired slightly better in the Ralph Cup competition, run alongside the Garrard Shield at Waitangi over the weekend, finishing third. The team of Chase McKeown, Thomas Neylon, Kevin Kruse and Luke Brown managed halves with Auckland and Bay of Plenty, before going down 3-1 to winners' Waikato in another tight match.
"We've got a good pool of juniors coming through so it's looking pretty positive for the future," Pelsky said.
Bay of Plenty beat second-placed Auckland 5-3 on Saturday afternoon and clinched the title by beating Waikato 6.5-1.5 yesterday.