Wellington see ‘ making pars, putts’ as key to upsetting Auckland

Auckland, Canterbury, Bay of Plenty and Wellington have earned the chance to be champions at the women’s Toro interprovincial at the Westown Golf Club in New Plymouth.

After a dominant week from Auckland, Canterbury and Bay of Plenty, yesterday rapidly turned into a head to head fight for the final spot between Wellington and North Harbour which was decided by just half a point.

This leaves two epic encounters this morning where Auckland will play Wellington and Canterbury will face Bay of Plenty for the chance to play in the big dance.

The emotion of a young Wellington side was hard to hide after achieving their semifinal goal.

“It means a lot as this was our goal after a poor performance last year, but I am very rapt with how we have gone and especially our three debutants,” said No 2 Te Rongopai Clay.

Clay has featured at eight interprovincials and knows what it takes, but more importantly knows what it means to everyone involved.

“I haven’t won one yet, we came runner- up four years ago but it would mean a lot, not just for me but for the management team and even Julianne [ Alvarez] who has been sending me crazy messages all week.”

Clay’s response was simple when asked how to beat Auckland. “Make pars and putts.” The highly anticipated match- up between Auckland and Canterbury lived up to its hype with Auckland tipping the southerners 3- 2. The required three points came from the middle players of Brittney Dryland ( 5 and 4), Siyi Keh ( 1up) and Munchin Keh ( 3 and 2).

Dryland’s performance against the in- form Catherine Bell was the feature as she continued on her winning ways to remain unbeaten this week.

“I am very pleased with not only my form but everyone’s so far. This was a good win, but tomorrow is the big day so we are very focused on that,” said a determined Dryland.

This left the result the No 1s meaningless, but after a racing start for New Zealand amateur champion Rose Zheng led three- up at the turn before Amelia Garvey crafted one of the week’s best comebacks which included a 25- foot birdie putt on 17 to win in style. Garvey then finished the day off with an amazing halved match against Chantelle Cassidy of Waikato after being four down at the halfway stage.

Host side Taranaki enjoyed another victory in the afternoon to make it three wins during their extremely impressive week. They beat Manawatu/ Wanganui 3 ½ - 1 ½ to have the clubhouse bubbling with satisfaction.

The four best teams are clearly locked into a finals berth and have the recipe for a mouth- watering final day at the 2016 interprovincials.

However, along with the excitement of the final day at at the Westown Golf Club, there is also fear that rain could spoil the party.