Northland's juniors bring home first title

Northland golfers have pulled off their first win in the junior interprovincial tournament, held in Cambridge.

The Northland team bounced back to beat Poverty Bay 8-0 yesterday in their final round-robin match after the disappointment of losing their first match in the competition against North Harbour on Thursday.

They then heard the news they were waiting for, that Auckland had beaten leaders Manawatu/Wanganui to hand Northland the title. They were the clear winners on 11 points with defending champions Waikato on nine points, pushing Manawatu into third and Auckland into fourth.

The Waikato Golf-hosted competition has been running for 12 years and is the closest to a national provincial competition at the junior level.

A jubilant Northland Golf president Roy Pelsky said the eight-strong team of five under-19 players and three U15 players had all trained hard over the past two years. "They've all pushed each other over the past 18 months or so and they've all improved so much and now we've got a real top team of juniors."

The team pulled off an impressive 6-2 win over Auckland to push themselves into the frame and beat Waikato 4.5-3.5 in another key match. They tied 4-4 with Manawatu on Thursday before tripping up against North Harbour.

The U19s were (in playing order): Chase McKeown, Kadin Neho, Luke Brown, Sean Masters, Braden Keown; U16s: Julian Fowler, Taylor Gill, Ben Bowmar.

They are all represented in the Northland Interdistrict Quad Team to play Auckland, Waikato and Taranaki on October 13-14 at The Grange, Auckland.

The team in playing order are: Brad Bonnington (C), Alex Neely, Chase McKeown, Sean Masters, Luke Brown, Kadin Neho, Brett Dormer, Lee Neumann, Reserve: Thomas Neylon. U16s: Braden Keown (C), Julian Fowler, Taylor Gill, Ben Bowmar, Reserve: Jackson Arkle.