Auckland will chase a special record in the men's interprovincial amateur teams golf championship starting in Nelson tomorrow.
Auckland have won all three previous interprovincial events held in Nelson, in 1958, 1979 and 1993, since the championship began in 1951.
The team will be hoping it is lucky
13, because it has been 13 years since they last won the interprovincial crown.
They have won the title 12 times, sharing the honour as the most successful province in interprovincial history with Wellington.
They head to Nelson with a combination led by Ryan Fox, Ben Wallace, former professional Van Wright, national junior representative Seve Ha and Jason Mann.
The pre-tournament favourites remain defending champions Bay of Plenty.
They took 50 years to win the interprovincial title, but since then they have claimed it four times in the past six years.
While they no longer have the services of world No 1 amateur Danny Lee, they have a strong side led by national representative Jared Pender, former Taranaki No 1 Troy Ropiha, James Hamilton, Ben Taylor and Mark Smith.
Hawkes Bay are led by national representative Nick Gillespie, who has support from former Canterbury player Daniel Pearce, Pieter Zwart, Stu Duff and Mike Wilson.
Wellington will cross Cook Strait full of confidence with an exceptionally strong combination, headed by 2006 national amateur champion Andrew Green.
National representative Peter Spearman-Burn is at No 2, while his brother Thomas, the New Zealand amateur champion, debuts at No 5.
Between them are Sean Kells at No 3 and Adam Church at No 4.
The hopes of Waikato, the 2006 champions, rest with Jim Cusdin, Aaron Leech and former international Richard Wright at three.
There will be interest in some youthful challenges from the likes of Taranaki, led by Aarun Langton with national secondary school winners Brad Hayward and Steven Heyes at
No 2 and No 3 respectively, while Murray Martin provides the experience at No 4.
There will be plenty of support for Tasman, led by Sean and Blair Riordan, with Jason Giblin at No 3.
The round robin competition begins tomorrow with the semifinals and final on Saturday.
- NZPA
