Golf: Big four back in contention at women's inter-provincial

Sarah Nicholson fought back. Picture / Bay of Plenty Times

With one section round to be played today, the semifinalists for the New Zealand women's inter-provincial teams match-play tournament have already been decided.

The big four from last year's championship at Hokowhitu - Bay of Plenty-Thames Valley, Waikato, North Harbour, and Auckland - have justified their seedings at Ngaruawahia this week and have qualified for tomorrow morning's semifinals after six of the seven section rounds.

All four teams have unblemished records, Auckland and Bay of Plenty-Thames Valley winning five from five in section one and Waikato and North Harbour doing likewise in section two.

In the one round this morning, Auckland meets Bay of Plenty to determine the top qualifier from section one, and Waikato and North Harbour square off to decide the pecking order in section two.

The top qualifiers from each section will play the runners-up from the opposite sections in the semifinals.

But apart from deciding the finishing order, the unbeaten sides in each section will not be taking the seventh round lightly as the opportunity is there to gain a psychological advantage should the same teams from the one section meet again in tomorrow afternoon's final.

Taranaki, in section one, and Northland, in section two, started yesterday's fifth round with chances of making the top four, but those prospects disappeared when Auckland won all five matches against Taranaki and Northland managed just one against North Harbour.

Auckland was equally dominant in the afternoon against Southland, winning four and halving one when Larissa Eruera was unable to get the better of Southland No 3 Fiona Murray, while North Harbour lost just the bottom singles against Wellington, Phillis Meti losing at the 17th to Pesi Sina.

Bay of Plenty-Thames Valley, unbeaten at last year's championship, won four games against Southland and halved the other - Jackie Shin and Shona Elder finishing square - and it recovered from a tardy start to overcome Taranaki, in the afternoon.

Taranaki led 4-1 after four holes and 3 1/2-1 1/2 at the turn, but Bay of Plenty was ahead 3-2 after 13 and Waikato, champion in 2000 and 2001 and runner-up last year, had big wins over Wellington and Northland, with Sarah Nicholson winning four of the last five holes to halve with Waikato No 1 Sarah McDonald and stop a morning whitewash and Caroline Bon and Sunny Nam-Koong both scoring halves for Northland to save face for their team.

Otago had a morning to celebrate, scoring its first win at South Canterbury's expense, but it failed to repeat in the afternoon, losing all five games to Hawkes Bay-Poverty Bay.

Tasman also had its first positive return in the sixth round, halving with Manawatu-Wanganui, to collect a competition point.

- NZPA