Golf: Top-flight Davis leads club to triumph

GIANT KILLER: Tauranga's Sam Davis' hot start against Mount Maunganui's Hayden Beard spurred his club on to claim victory in the final of the Bay of Plenty Inter-club Match Play Pennants.PHOTO/FILE

Tauranga repeated as Bay of Plenty champions by defeating Mount Maunganui at Whakatane on Sunday.

It was at the top of the order where Tauranga dominated, led superbly by Sam Davis who soundly defeated Hayden Beard.

Davis has an outstanding record at interprovincial level and shot out to a commanding lead over the in-form Beard.

Davis was up four after six holes and never eased up in winning on the 16th.

Number two Karl Knedler also rose to the occasion in defeating an out-of-sorts Bailey Smith, while Bay of Plenty Masters Champion Blair Murdock was never behind against Josef Edge.

Fellow Bay Masters rep Justin Rasmussen also finished early in defeating Brent Curnow.

The morning foursomes were shared two all so everything was at stake with the singles matches and Tauranga got off to the perfect start with Dave Cooke and Chris Posa in control over Campbell Irvine and Josh Rookes.

Rookes and Cooke went to the 18th, but the rubber was already decided as the club had four singles victories in the bag and Blair Murdock one up going to the 17th tee.

The Mount club enjoyed some success by winning their Senior A match against Opotiki. The match went to a sudden death playoff before Opotiki's player hit his tee shot out of bounds on the first playoff hole.

Tauranga won the Senior B flag by defeating Omokoroa 5.5 to 3.5 and Omanu were too strong for Taupo in the Intermediate grade.

Hamurana came from behind to defeat Lake View to win the Junior pennant.

The Division 2 ladies final was won by Whakatane over Waihi 3-1.