Golf: Pennant foes deadlocked in dark

Mt Maunganui and Tauranga will return to battle again today, a sudden-death playoff deciding Bay of Plenty Golf's championship pennant finalist after a controversial and confusion-filled end to their semifinal yesterday.
Playing for the right to face top qualifiers Omanu in this Sunday's final, Mount and Tauranga couldn't be separated in the darkness with the No2 and 3 qualifiers locked at six matches each after the dust had settled in an epic singles showdown.
After half-an-hour of confusion and debate it was decided the result will live or die on the outcome of a sudden-death playoff today back at Mt Maunganui between Brad Kendall and Eddie Burgess, the sides' respective No 1s.
With darkness settling in and the top matches - Nic Meyer v Blair Murdock, Kendall v Burgess, and Sam Davis v Hayden Beard - all played out in pitch black with only a security light overlooking the 18th green shedding any light on the course, Mount initially thought they'd got the nod by virtue of winning the round-robin clash between the teams back in February.
But with the rules ambiguous on the likelihood of that formula being used to find a winner, Tauranga suggested a countback of holes won which, naturally, would have fallen in their favour.
A chip-off from the greenside or from in one of the bunkers were also floated as alternative tie-breakers before sanity prevailed, although neither team was overly keen on sending their playoff candidates - Kendall, a former national amateur champion, and Burgess, a former professional - back out in the darkness to bash their way down 18.
The pair will return at 4pm today to play the par four 18th. Kendall beat Burgess 3 and 2 in their singles clash yesterday.
The final junior semifinal between Hamurana and Mt Maunganui was also unfinished, with the pair locked at 3-all with three matches still several holes from being completed.
Yesterday's showdown was drama-filled from the get-go, with Tauranga looking dead and buried in the alternate shots foursomes before a massive fightback saw them wrestle the advantage off the hosts.
George Kinghorn and Karl Knedler got the only win, 2 and 1 over Jason Madden and Bailey Smith, with Mount's Campbell Irvine and Owen Kendall three-jabbing the 18th to halve with Ben Shanly and David Feeney, Blair Murdock ramming in a 5m birdie putt on 18 to square his and Sam Davis's clash with Mount's Mark Hughes and Hayden Beard and Burgess knocking his second to half-a-metre and John Waretini sinking the putt to split their round with Brad Kendall and Meyer.
Tauranga's singles wins came through Kinghorn (2 and 1 over Hughes), Waretini (who smashed an out-of-sorts Madden 6 and 4) and Davis, who edged Beard 2 and 1. Bailey Smith and Karl Knedler halved, with Owen Kendall a 4 and 3 winner over Shanly, Irvine solid in his 4 and 3 win over Feeney and Kendall out-putting Burgess in their match which ended on the 16th.
Meyer, a late call-up for Mt Maunganui, won 17 against Murdock and then made a brilliant up-and-down from the greenside bunker in the dark to win the 18th with par and pip his opponent 1 up.
Kinghorn, Tauranga's captain, said coming back today for a sudden-death playoff was the fairest way of breaking the stalemate.
"The problem is the rules don't cover an eventuality like this," said Kinghorn.
"There's scope for a sudden-death playoff but it's pretty unclear what to do if there's not the ability to play like tonight. "We're the first (championship) team ever not to lose in a sudden-death semi or final away from their home course so I'm pretty proud of the effort, even though we haven't got a winner yet.
"To claw our way back this morning, when we could have easily been 3-1 or even 3 to down is pretty much the reason we've ended up where we are."
Madden said in hindsight more should have been done to get the teams off earlier in the foursomes, although in fairness there were also eight other lower grade semifinals played.
"We should have started at 7.30am (not 8.40) because it wasn't a good look guys trying to hole four foot putts in the dark when they couldn't even see the hole, but any controversy shouldn't take away from an immense battle.
"We always knew it would be close and it's not over yet."