Golf: BoP slip up but still make semis

If a poor rehearsal brings with it the promise of a brilliant performance, Bay of Plenty should win the national men's interprovincial golf title in Otatara, Southland, for the first time today.

The Bay, so dominating since the tournament began on Tuesday morning, saved the worst for the last as they plunged to a 0-5 humiliation from an underpowered Auckland side yesterday.

The result did not affect the Bay's finishing position, top qualifiers with five points and 19 individual games, but the general performance was so lacking in sparkle that team manager Dan Dougherty faces a major rebuilding programme before the semifinal clash with Waikato this morning.

Canterbury and home-town favourites Southland will meet in the other semifinal, guaranteeing a north-south final in the afternoon.

Whether Bay of Plenty will be part of that is not as clear as it was at lunchtime yesterday.

The most favourable spin that Dougherty could put on the result was that it was better that it came yesterday and not today by a team who have reached the semifinals for five of the last six years without stepping forward for the winner's medals.

"The manner in which we lost was disappointing," Dougherty said."It was a very poor performance by everyone, with the exception of Jason Laing and Kent Skellern.

Skellern went down 4 and 2 to Logan Holzer, ending a 13-win streak which began a year ago in Hamilton.

He was relieved that the pressure of keeping alive this run was gone, but the Bay will need him to start another today if they are to be champions.

Waikato come into the semifinal from the other end of the confidence table, halving their first match with Hawkes Bay, who finished the week 13th, and losing to Manwatu-Wanganui in the next round, before beating Poverty Bay, Northland and Wellington, with a half against Canterbury in between times.

Waikato needed some help to make the 3-2 win over Wellington mean something, and got it when North Harbour bounced back from a 0-5 thumping by Bay of Plenty to upset Otago 3-2.

That put some spice into Waikato's match with Wellington and the pressure showed, no more so than Glen Millin's match with Todd Nicholson.

One up playing the last hole, Millin saw his third shot slice into a bunker and in the end was down for a double-bogey six.

It did not hurt Waikato because Nicholson was having problems of his own and they halved the hole in double-bogeys.

Given the distraction of the weather, which varied from cold and windy to cold and wet to cold and sunny, it was inevitable that some of the scoring should not be of a level expected at the Tower tournament.

- Herald Correspondent