BOP drop crucial match to Harbour

TOP CLASS: Luke Toomey is leading from the front for defending champions Waikato in New Plymouth. PHOTO:FILE

An exciting morning of golf still wasn't enough to decide the final four at the Toro Interprovincials making for an intense day six at the New Plymouth Golf Club on Friday.

Canterbury enjoyed the bye, but wins to Waikato, North Harbour, Otago and Wellington leave them all in contention for the final.

Bay of Plenty, who lost to North Harbour, are the sixth team still in contention but will need a dominant Friday.

On a glorious day in Taranaki, Waikato continued to prove why they are the favourites with yet another 4-1 victory, this time over Manawatu/Wanganui. The Luke Toomey lead side are on the perfect path to achieve three in a row.

North Harbour have announced themselves as more than contenders with an impressive win over a strong Bay of Plenty side. Jake Meenhorst continued on his winning ways giving Harbour a great start with a 6/4 victory over Jordan Golding.

The exciting number one match up of Jason Gulasekharam and William Howard was an entertaining display of golf all morning before Gulasekharam was able to pull away in the back stretch to finish off a 3/2 victory.

Otago somehow manufactured an incredible victory over the host side Taranaki after looking certain to fall short.

A sublime par on the last hole (par three ninth) gave Michael 'Moxy' Smith the deciding win over Travis Stewart. The Otago veteran is four from four this week.

Wellington returned to their winning ways with a vital win over a courageous Tasman side who are also out of contention. Leading New Zealand amateurs Daniel Hillier and Ryan Chisnall stole the show with an epic encounter that came down to the final hole where Hillier snuck away with victory.

The pair started slow before turning on a clinic, shooting five late birdies a piece to show why they are the country's leading amateurs.

This leaves both sides of the draw in an intense arm wrestle with three teams vying for only two semifinal positions in each division.

Wellington will meet Otago tomorrow in what is shaping up to be a mouth-watering match and will go a long way in deciding our semifinalists.

Bay of Plenty 2 North Harbour 3
William Howard lost to Jason Gulasekharam, Henry Spring def Cameron Jones, Landyn Edwards def Changi-Gi Lee, Shaun Campbell lost to Mark Hutson, Jordan Golding lost to Jake Meenhorst.

Results: CLICK HERE