Golf: Fowler eyes Freyberg glory

HIGH HOPES: Jason Madden is part of the Bay of Plenty golf team to contest The Lion Foundation Freyberg Masters at the Ngamotu Golf Club in New Plymouth. PHOTO/FILE

Bay of Plenty will be among the favoured teams to take out The Lion Foundation Freyberg Masters at the Ngamotu Golf Club in New Plymouth this weekend.

The annual event features 15 teams of five golfers from provinces throughout New Zealand competing in an over-40s matchplay contest.

Last year Bay of Plenty went to Waitangi as defending champions but finished fifth. Team manager Ross Fowler is hoping for a better outcome this weekend.

"The expectations are high and the guys have created it through their own performance," he said. "I haven't done that. They know they can win it, they know they are good enough. Like any game of golf, it is just a mental thing. It is on the day, like matchplay golf is. All the teams are good. You never know what you are going to get from year to year.

"Darryn is back after missing last year through work commitments, which strengthens us. It is the same team that won two years ago, except for Tony Hewlett, God bless him, who died just a couple of months after we won in Christchurch. Bryan is our new 'TH'."

The competition for places in the Bay of Plenty team is as strong as it has been, which pleases Fowler.

"I took over in 2009 when things were not going particularly as well as they might have been," he said.

"Our focus has been on getting more guys involved and creating that competition. We have a really good culture in the team now, the guys all push themselves and they practise a lot together.

"The last six weeks we have spent a lot of time together focusing on each individual's weakness in their own game and working with their own coaches as well."

The biggest challenge facing all the golfers will be the stormy weather expected to lash the west coast of the North Island.

"It will get windy and rain is forecast with strong nor'westers so it will be challenging for sure," Fowler said.

"The players just have to focus on what they can do and not worry about the conditions or who they are playing."