Golf: Rain muddies view of interprovincial semis

By BOB PEARCE

Waikato emerged from the murk of a rainy Taranaki day yesterday as the only certain semifinalists for the interprovincial championship.

Heavy rain delayed the start of play on the Ngamotu course and caused a three-hour break from midday. The last full round has been delayed until this morning, with the semifinals in the afternoon and the final tomorrow.

Throughout the week of delays, rain, wind and sodden greens, Waikato have been remarkably consistent. Yesterday they downed Tasman 5-0 to stand alone with four wins and a half, and a total of 20 1/2 games.

Evan Woolf and Mark Purser have won all their games, and No 1 Mathew Holten added the cream yesterday with a birdie putt on the last to beat New Zealand representative Glyn Delany.

Otago and Wellington are on four points with 18 games and must be favoured to make the semis.

Otago will be favoured to beat Northland today and Wellington meet North Harbour, who were downed by Auckland yesterday.

Bay of Plenty have 3 1/2 points and 16 games with a chance to stake a semifinal claim if they beat Waikato convincingly today.

Auckland, North Harbour, Canterbury and Hawkes Bay retain a chance of advancing. Hawkes Bay, who had the bye yesterday, are best placed with 16 games already and a match with lowly Aorangi today.

Auckland's 4-1 victory over North Harbour was a gutsy comeback after their frustrations of the previous day when they were penalised for lateness after a rain delay.

It was also a reversal of a 10-man clash earlier this year at Middlemore, which Harbour won 9-1.

When rain interrupted the match about halfway through yesterday, Harbour were ahead in three games and level in another.

Harbour No 4 Scott Johnson duly notched up a 5 and 3 victory over Geoff Sisson, but elsewhere the Aucklanders fought back.

All the games went to the last hole, but Andrew Lawson beat Josh Carmichael one up and Franz Schwanner and Clarke Osborne followed suit, Osborne with an impressive birdie.

No 1 Logan Holzer edged ahead of Chris Johns with a 20ft putt on the 17th and then won the last as well when the North Harbour man was short with an approach and a putt.

Bay of Plenty's 3-2 win over Manawatu-Wanganui was sealed with wins from Jae An, Nicholas Davey and Andrew McNair.

Davey, who went round in 67, began impressively against Malcolm Wells with a chip-in eagle on his first hole. He played the first nine holes in four under par before winning 4 and 3.

Manawatu's Tim Wilkinson remains the only No 1 with five wins out of five.

He finished his game with Kent Skellern in spectacular fashion, replying to a 40ft Skellern putt with a 20-footer of his own for a 2 and 1 victory.