Golf: Victory after final putt drama

Tauranga have defied the odds, winning twice in sudden-death away from their home course in a week to be crowned Bay of Plenty championship men's pennant winners for the second time in four years.
Tauranga staved off a late fightback from Omanu, the finals hosts after dominating round-robin, to squeeze out a dramatic 6 to 5 victory that wasn't clinched until the final putt on the final hole was conceded to give Tauranga the provincial black flag as the leading club.
It was Tauranga's third championship crown in six years and eighth since the competition started in 1978.
There was double celebration for the Gate Pa-based club, with their men's senior A side pipping Te Puke 5-4, although their women's silver pennant interclub players lost their final in a playoff to Rotorua after splitting the singles 3-all.
Mt Maunganui also won a tight one 5-4 to take the senior B crown over Hinehopu, while Taupo (intermediate) and Hamurana (junior) got home in their finals.
With the morning foursomes split 2-2, No 4 John Waretini was Tauranga's saviour yesterday as the sun dipped low over the Kaimai Range, getting up-and-down from off the back of the 18th green for par to hold his 1up advantage over Omanu's Adam Grierson.
Waretini had been 3 up against Grierson with five holes left in their singles clash but lost the par-three 14th and 17th holes to Grierson pars to send the match down the last with the title in the balance.
Tauranga had held a decisive six matches-to-two buffer over Omanu at the midway point in the singles, with only Sam Davis (1down against Jordan Golding) and George Kinghorn (2down against Justin Rasmussen) trailing.
But the predicted momentum shift - more a high-pitched squeal than the wheels coming right off - arrived in a hurry early on the homeward stretch.
No 8 Ben Shanly fell a couple behind to Omanu's Ron Sisson with four holes to play, Karl Knedler was battling against Mark Clifford and Kinghorn couldn't get much going against Rasmussen, with only David Feeney holding a slight buffer in his clash with Nick Muller. Clifford and Rasmussen won their matches on the last while Feeney got a point for Tauranga when his match ended on the 17th.
Shanly dug deep and grabbed what would turn out to be a decisive half off Sisson, leaving both sides' top orders to scrap it out.
No 2 Blair Murdock was untroubled in his 4 and 3 defeat of Jobey Hudson, while No 1 Eddie Burgess, Tauranga's playoff hero in the semifinal, got home against Mark Kiwi 2 and 1, having been four up with five holes left. Suddenly the momentum that had been Omanu's swung the other way.
With a big crowd gathered around the 18th, Omanu needed a miracle, or two, to force a playoff and almost had their saviour in the form of 16-year-old Golding, who fought a ding-dong battle with Davis, a senior Bay rep, all afternoon. He produced a stunning 8m birdie from out of nowhere to wrestle a 1 up advantage.
That left Grierson 1 down, needing the experienced Waretini to suffer a meltdown on the last to send the clash to extra holes. It was never going to happen, with the wily pennant campaigner lagging his birdie putt from the fringe of the green to gimme range, although Waretini later admitted Golding's birdie putt to topple Davis rattled his cage.
"He hadn't made much on the greens the whole round so to drop a putt like that when it mattered showed the class of the kid and made my putt seem a tiny bit longer!"
Waretini said he was comfortable getting his iron shot anywhere near the green to put pressure on Grierson, who'd poked his second short. "It was a head wind so I knew back edge would be a good place to get up and down from. I actually played most of the hole thinking Griesy and I were all square, only realising when I was standing over the putt that a lag down for par would be enough
"Going down to the wire, in our semi last week and again today, shows the level of golf, particularly among the three Tauranga clubs and probably reflects the season of all three - we're all pretty even and there was never going to be much between a win and a loss."