Off the tee: Bay on verge of historic achievement

Bay Of Plenty will be out to set a fresh standard for interprovincial golf when they chase a fourth title in a row at Titirangi next week.

From 1952-1955 Manawatu-Wanganui won four in a row when the composition of the teams, the format of the competition and the time of year were different.

The contest had been inaugurated in 1951 when Wellington were the winners and only five other associations took part.

What is notable about Bay of Plenty's dream run is that they had never won the title before when they defeated North Harbour 4-1 in the final at Sherwood Park, Whangarei, in 2002. In the next two finals at Coringa, Christchurch, and Napier, they beat Waikato.

Mark Smith, the Bay captain, made his debut at Whangarei and has been in all the winning teams. The only other survivor from the 2002 lineup is number five Jason McIntosh.

Smith has been under an injury cloud for the past fortnight after damaging his right thumb. He will not make a final decision on his fitness until Sunday. He is down to play at number two behind New Zealand representative Josh Geary and ahead of former national champion Eddie Burgess.

Rotorua youngster Danny Lee will make his debut at number four and Kevin Smith is on standby to play if Mark Smith drops out.

Waikato suffered a blow when Martin Burger, who had been selected at number four, was hurt in a road accident on his way home from the Garrard Shield at Lochiel. He is out of hospital but has been replaced by Brendon Seidel.

Mark Purser will be at number one ahead of the well-performed James Gill and Richard Wright.

A feature of the tournament these days is the enormous turnover of players. Of the 75 players who represented their provinces at Whangarei in 2002, only 12 will be at Titirangi.

Home teams usually prosper and Auckland will be hoping they can better the efforts of their predecessors at Remuera in 1990.

They made the semifinals but lost out to eventual winners Wellington, whose number one, Michael Campbell, won a playoff at the first extra hole.

Leighton James, winner of the Auckland matchplay title, and number two Jason Mann have had promising seasons and Fraser Wilkin and Matthew Laird had three wins apiece in the Garrard Shield. Albert Kim will play at number five and reserve Ben Wallace will deputise for Wilkin, when he has exam commitments.

North Harbour will have former mid-amateur champion Dean Sipson at the top of the order ahead of Steven Han. Sam Shin has pulled out because of school exams.

Wellington and Hawkes Bay were the beaten semifinalists last year.

The Bay's number one will be Doug Holloway, who was player of the tournament at Napier. Darryn Turley at two is the only other survivor from that team. Brenden Stuart, Andrew Green and Richard Pegg are all back for Wellington.

Aucklanders will be familiar with the number three in the Canterbury team, Richard Hislop. He had an unbeaten run at number three for Auckland in 2003 after completing a similar feat for Wellington in 2001.

Titirangi has played host to many great players, including Arnold Palmer, Kel Nagle and Peter Thomson. The course is not particularly long but demands precise placement. The unwary will struggle on some of the tiered greens.

Section play in the Lion Foundation-sponsored event runs from Tuesday to Friday with only one round on Thursday. The semifinals and final will be next Saturday.