Golf: From easy beats to champions

Bay of Plenty Freyberg Masters champions, Steve Heberley (left), Jason Madden, Bryan Pirani, Ross Fowler (manager), Blair Murdock, Darryn Lowans.

Bay of Plenty won the 2015 Diners Club Freyberg Masters by the smallest of margins in a thrilling finish at New Plymouth's scenic Ngamotu course on Friday.

Starting the day in fourth place, Bay of Plenty drew with Otago in the morning round followed up by a fantastic win over Manawatu/Wanganui in the all-important final afternoon of the week, in the over-40s matchplay contest. That meant five teams all finished on the same amount of points at the top, so it came down to the individual match points that went in Bay of Plenty's favour.

Bay of Plenty captain Jason Madden, from the Mount Maunganui club, paid tribute to his teammates Darryn Lowans (Omokoroa), Blair Murdock (Tauranga), Steve Heberley (Whakatane) and Bryan Pirani (Omokoroa).

"We were wooden-spooners for years and now we have won it twice in the last three years," Madden said. "The hype at the start of the week was all about Northland, Canterbury and locals Taranaki. We just turned up and did all our practice and it was a great team effort.

"The big turnaround was (Thursday) when we beat Aorangi 4.5-0.5 and Tasman 5-0, which leapt us up the leader board. Then we had a good half in the morning (Friday) which meant we had to win 3-2 in the afternoon against Manawatu/Wanganui and the tournament was ours because we had the games.

"All the hard practice and get-togethers, and stuff that manager Ross Fowler and I have done, all paid off. The standard is really high at this event. If you are not shooting even par, and it doesn't matter if you are playing number one or number five, you will get dusted up.

"It has put Bay of Plenty Masters on the map."

Fowler says the new team culture he introduced has paid dividends over the past three years.

"We created this culture where no matter who is out there doing it, everyone supports everyone and has a part to play in the team. It has built belief in each other," Fowler said.

"It is significant that so many teams are trying to emulate that. What we have done is lift the standard of the entire competition. We have gone from easy-beats to now where no one wants to play us."

2015 Diners Club Freyberg Masters

27.5 Bay of Plenty, 24.5 Hawke's Bay, 23 Canterbury, 22.5 Auckland, 22 Waikato