A little underdone but history on her side . . .

ON THE TEE: Gisborne's Tessa McDonald is at No.1 in the Hawke's Bay-Poverty Bay team competing in the women's national interprovincial in Timaru this week. HBPB start their campaign against Northland tomorrow afternoon. Gisborne Herald file picture

Gisborne's Tessa McDonald only needs to look back to last year for inspriation at the women's national interprovincial golf tournament in Timaru this week.

McDonald is once again at No.1 in the Hawke's Bay-Poverty Bay side who start their team matchplay campaign tomorrow afternoon.

The rest of the side are all Hawke's Bay players — veteran Janie Field at No.2, Kathy Olsen at No.3, Martha Manaena at No.4, Kayla Van De Ven at No.5 and Rahiri Ellison team reserve.

McDonald led by example at the 2020 national interprovincial in Auckland.

She won five matches and lost two at the top of the order as HBPB finished seventh out of the 13 provinces, a significant improvement on the previous year.

Full-time work and the Covid-19 situation sees her go into this week a little underdone, but matchplay is McDonald's forte and her history at the event indicates more success.

HBPB have a bye in Round 1 tomorrow morning, then start their week against Northland in the afternoon.

They face Taranaki and Canterbury on Wednesday, Aorangi on Thursday and Bay of Plenty and Manawatu-Wanganui on Friday.

Positional playoffs are on Saturday morning, with the final on Saturday afternoon.

Auckland are gunning for a sixth consecutive title after a perfect team record in 2020.

Meanwhile, Taranaki men celebrated history at the men's national interprovincial in Ashburton on Saturday.

They beat Hawke's Bay 3-2 in the final to secure a historic first national crown.

Poverty Bay-East Coast were 12th out of the 13th provinces.