Golf: Johnson's Harbour debut well worth wait

By BOB PEARCE

Scott Johnson has waited a long time to make his debut in the interprovincial teams' tournament and when he finally got the chance yesterday he seized it.

The North Harbour No 4 was a key player as his team emerged from the first day of the Tower tournament at New Plymouth as the only double winners.

Johnson halved his match with Doug Holloway in the 3-2 victory over Hawkes Bay in the morning and he beat Josh Kearns one up as Harbour edged past Taranaki by the same margin in the afternoon.

"The atmosphere was great and I was really pumped up for this," Johnson said. "I've always had things like exams which have kept me out of the team and the adrenalin was really flowing when I finally made it."

Harbour's morning win was expected, but they were made to work hard. Chris Johns and Sam Sullivan were comfortable winners at the top of the order, but the experienced Phil Mosley ran into the erratic Guy Penrose on one of his best days and lost 5 and 4.

The winning margin came from halves from Johnson and 19-year-old Josh Carmichael at No 5.

Taranaki came into the afternoon clash fresh from a 5-0 drubbing of Aorangi and with a team with intimate knowledge of the testing Ngamotu course.

There was never much in it, with three of the games decided on the final green and the advantage swinging both ways.

Mosley again ran into a player in sparkling form, with Nathan Bennett stringing together three birdies in four holes and finally winning 3 and 2. Sullivan had his nose in front of Murray Martin all the way for a 2 and 1 victory, and Johnson and Carmichael provided the other two wins, both one up.

Johns and Regan MacRae had a tremendous tussle at the top of the order. The North Harbour No 1 went out to an early lead, but MacRae charged back, taking four holes in a row from the seventh with a conceded eagle, a birdie and two pars.

They halved the 11th in birdie when Johns chipped in. MacRae replied with a long putt and then Johns three-putted the 12th.

MacRae was one up coming to the 18th and held on to the advantage with a half in birdie, despite a mishit tee shot.

Auckland played only one match, beating Wellington 3-2. Both had byes in the afternoon.

The key player for Auckland was No 3 Clarke Osborne, who came from behind to beat Shaun Richards 2 and 1 when the Wellingtonian started carving his tee shots to the right.

Waikato needed a 6ft par putt by No 2 Brad Shilton to beat Manawatu-Wanganui 3-2 in their only game, and defending champions Canterbury beat Aorangi by the same margin, also in their only game.

Bay of Plenty cruised to a 5-0 win over Poverty Bay-East Coast in their only outing, while Northland beat Poverty Bay in the morning but were well beaten by Tasman in the afternoon.

The weather was perfect yesterday, but may be more testing today when North Harbour have a bye and then play Canterbury, and Auckland take on Southland and Hawkes Bay.