Otago tail dominant in Southland clash

IN the first interprovincial outing of the year, the Otago men’s team had a comfortable win over Southland on the Taieri Lakes course during the weekend.

Otago led its Southern neighbours in the foursomes, reverse singles and singles to win by 151⁄2 to 91⁄2 in fine and then wet conditions.

The Otago tail was dominant. Sungwoo Han, Jack Turner and Cody McMullan all won both their singles games and featured in the two foursomes victories.

Otago No 4 Ben Patston emerged unbeaten with a win and a half, as well as combining with Callum Judkins for another half in the Saturday foursomes round.

Southland has a strong top quintet, the nucleus coming from the team which won the national Toro tournament in Gisborne in 2011.

It was a valuable outing for Otago’s top echelon and Brandon Hodgson, Ryan Bellamy, Callum Judkins and Jonny Mackay all emerged with one win and a loss each.

For Southland, No 1 Matt Tautari led from the front, posting wins over Hodgson and Bellamy.

Jeremy Hall (No 6) pitched in with two wins while Liam Hewitt at No 3 was unbeaten with one win and a half.

Hodgson and Patston went under the card to win their games while for Southland, Jeremy Hall was five under par beating Phil Bungard 5 and 4 yesterday morning.

The under19 quartet was dominant over their Southland counterparts, winning both foursomes games and dominating the two rounds of singles matchplay.

The team won by 81⁄2 to 11⁄2, which augurs well for success in the national junior interprovincial teams tournament to be played in Cambridge next week.