Golf: Wellington fly home on the wind

By BOB PEARCE

Wellington won their seventh provincial tournament in 12 years when they beat Hawkes Bay 4-1 in the final at New Plymouth yesterday.

The wind blew strongly for the second day in a row and the Wellingtonians relished the conditions.

Their only loss came at No 3, where former Waikato player Guy Penrose beat Shaun Richards 4 and 3.

Logan Scott, who used to play at Titirangi, gave Wellington an early advantage by beating Nick Radonich 5 and 3, but the other three games were much closer.

Peter Smithson birdied the last to beat Doug Holloway 2 up and Richard Hislop, who went through the week unbeaten and was named player of the tournament, downed Darryn Turley 2 and 1.

At the top of the order, Jonathan Cane came back from two down with five to play to beat Richard Squire on the last.

Wellington's continued success owes much to the efforts of their coach since 1989, Mal Tongue, who is also the national coach.

But he reckoned the efforts of his Hawkes Bay opposite, Brian Doyle, were more praiseworthy.

Doyle, who also coaches professional Michael Long, took over the team in March and lifted them from 13th last year to their first final since the format was introduced in 1985.

The semifinals on Saturday afternoon were fairly clearcut.

Waikato and Otago, who had been first and second in section play, left their best golf behind.

Otago, with the exception of No 3 Brent McEwan, were never in the hunt in a 4-1 defeat by Wellington.

National champion Ben Gallie at No 1 for the southerners was awful, losing 7 and 6 to Cane after being 10 over for the first nine holes.

Waikato's only winner in a 3 1/2-1 1/2 loss to Hawkes Bay was Brad Shilton at two, who had five birdies in his last seven holes to beat Turley 7 and 5.

Evan Woolf and Mark Purser both lost their perfect winning records, though Woolf scored a fortuitous half when Radonich hit his second on the final hole into the roots of a tree and opted to play the ball rather than take a penalty. He rained four or five blows on the ball, but it did not budge.

The teenage Purser's impressive Tower debut ended two down to Holloway, who clinched the game with a fairway wood second into the teeth of the gale and on to the green on the final hole.

North Harbour and Auckland finished ninth and 10th, respectively. Both won three matches, but Harbour edged ahead by half an individual game.

Auckland could take some consolation from the fact that they beat both eventual finalists, but they also had some bad losses.

The individual statistics tell the tale: Auckland's best player was No 3 Clarke Osborne with four wins, a half and a loss.

Logan Holzer at the top of the order had three wins and three losses, Franz Schwanner at two had two wins, a half and three losses, and Geoff Sisson and Andrew Lawson both lost four games and won two.

Harbour's most successful player was Josh Carmichael at No 5, who had four wins, a half and a loss. Scott Johnson at four won three, halved two and lost one. Sam Sullivan won three, halved one and lost two.

The disappointments were the two most experienced players, Phil Mosley at three and Chris Johns at one. Mosley managed only one win and one half, while Johns lost all but one of his games.

Bay of Plenty finished sixth, after a disappointing 4 1/2- 1/2 beating by Waikato.

Northland won one match and halved another to finish 13th out of 15.