KEY POINTS:
It's been 13 years since Auckland last won the national interprovincial men's title. Considering the association has more golfers than any other in the country, that's hardly a record to be proud of.
However this year's team will be among the better combinations at the Greenacres Golf Club
near Nelson, and have high hopes of winning for the first time since 1995.
As one of the selectors who picked them I have to say that. But after winning all but one of their fixtures so far in 2008, this five-man team can be really confident.
Ryan Fox, Ben Wallace, Van Wright, Seve Ha and Jason Mann, with travelling reserve Mark Speedy, are in the stronger of the two groups, which each play a round robin starting Tuesday. The top two teams from each group qualify for the semifinals next Saturday.
Auckland's first three matches are against Canterbury, Waikato and Wellington. While we'd fancy our chances against the red and blacks, Waikato beat Auckland in the recent 10-man team Garrard Shield match at Pukekohe and Wellington have two recent winners of the New Zealand Amateur, Andrew Green and Thomas Spearman-Burn, in their line-up.
Auckland's three remaining matches in group play are against Tasman, followed by Otago and Manawatu-Wanganui on Friday.
This Auckland quintet has been part of a very successful year to date for the provincial representative team. Three of the five won the national interprovincial strokeplay championship in Invercargill in March. Since then Wallace and Mann have stepped up to take the places of Leighton James, who's trying to qualify as a professional in Australia, and Ben Davies, whose local ranking has slipped.
With Eisenhower Trophy player Jared Pender and the Charles Tour's leading amateur Troy Ropiha at numbers one and two, Bay of Plenty start the week again as hot favourites for the interprovincial title.
They'll have the extremely accomplished Mark Smith, a former international at No 5.
There's an intriguing change to the tournament format this year. The reserve player can be substituted into the playing line-up for any match for any reason. Previously the sixth man would only get a game for reasons of genuine injury or illness. This year the team manager can, at his discretion, remove a player for reasons of form or results, and substitute him with the reserve.
How much this facility to interchange players will be used remains to be seen, but in Auckland's case Speedy has been forewarned he's likely to be used at least once. With Wright having a hip injury, he should be ready to play every day.
The interprovincial tournament, played annually since 1951, has a proud history. For years it was known as the Freyberg Rosebowl and this year has new sponsorship from the mower and course equipment company Toro. Auckland has won 10 of the 57 previous events, but only twice in the last quarter century. It's about time for another win.
