Golf: Captain wins after father collapses

By BOB PEARCE

Bay of Plenty captain Mark Smith survived the trauma of having his father collapse alongside the first green of his final game of section play to see his team into the semifinals of the interprovincial tournament at Christchurch yesterday.

Smith carried on to win his game and, although the Bay suffered their first loss at this level in 14 matches, they will play Manawatu-Wanganui this morning in one semifinal, while top qualifiers Waikato meet Canterbury in the other.

The first-hole drama heightened what was already going to be a tense struggle between champions Bay of Plenty and Waikato, with their team of national squad members.

Smith and his good friend and national team-mate Brad Shilton were clearly upset by the collapse of Ken Smith, who had been caddying for his son.

Smith snr was taken to hospital, where he was recovering last night.

The Bay captain won his game when Shilton three-putted the final hole with Waikato already winning the match 3-1.

The Bay were ahead in three games and level in a fourth after nine holes, but the bottom order of James Gill, Mark Purser and Mark Boe came through for Waikato in the crunch.

Purser has had six wins out of six, as has An, who beat Mathew Holten 2 up. The only other player from the 75 in the field to retain a perfect record was Auckland No 3 Richard Hislop.

Manawatu-Wanganui had the comfort of a bye in the afternoon, knowing they were in the semis alongside Bay of Plenty.

Canterbury, Wellington, Waikato and Otago still had realistic chances.

Otago's hopes had been dimmed when they were beaten 4-1 by North Harbour in the morning and they lost to Wellington 3-2 in the afternoon.

The games they won in that encounter were enough to give a semifinal spot on a countback to Canterbury, who had halved their match with Wellington in the morning and then made hard work of beating North Harbour 3-2 in the afternoon.

The inexperienced Harbour team had a good day. Ben Jujnovich, 18, beat the experienced Andrew Hobbs (Otago) and halved with Nic Fry (Canterbury) to record four wins and two halves in his first tournament.

Bevan Dennison won in the morning and came back from four down with four to play to halve with Matthew Peter (Canterbury), and No 1 Josh Carmichael had two good wins.

Auckland finished with two wins on the final day for a record of four wins and two halves.

Northland celebrated their first victory of the tournament, a 4-1 victory over Southland, with only Michael Perrin missing out on the party.

Poverty Bay earned their first credit through a half with Aorangi.

Intriguingly, Manawatu-Wanganui finished 14th of 15 teams at Sherwood Park last year.

Three of those players are still in the team.