Ball experiences top amateur competition

ALL SMILES: Hawke’s Bay-Poverty Bay top seed Tessa McDonald is all smiles as she congratulates her Auckland counterpart, Vivian Lu (obscured), and official after giving her opponent a scare on Wednesday. Hawke’s Bay Today picture by Paul Taylor

GOLF

THE representative career of Gisborne teenager Ellen Ball took a huge leap forward in her national women’s interprovincial debut in Napier yesterday.

Gisborne Girls’ High School student Ball was brought in at No.5 in the five-woman Hawke’s Bay-Poverty Bay team for their Round 6 clash against Taranaki on the Maraenui course.

It gave Poverty Bay two players in the starting five — Ball and Tessa McDonald, who enjoyed two wins at No.1 as HBPB halved 2½-all with Aorangi yesterday morning, then lost 3-2 to the ’Naki in the afternoon.

It was not enough to lift them off the bottom of their section. They had half a team point and seven individual wins heading into this morning’s round of matchplay against Otago.

The southerners and Taranaki have one team point but fewer individual points than HBPB.

Ball’s debut was all about the experience of top amateur-level competition.

The 12-handicapper was beaten 6 and 5 by Taranaki’s Kaye-Maree Mihaljevich, who plays off a 10.

National interprovincial matches are played off the stick.

Ball lost on 13 but will benefit from her first taste of this high-pressure stage.

“It was really exciting (to make my debut) because even though I had a hard opponent it brought the best out in me,” the 14-year-old told Hawke’s Bay Today.

McDonald, in contrast, is a hardened national interprovincial matchplayer and she showed these qualities in her two wins at the top of the order.

The 24-year-old beat Aorangi’s Ginny Bolderston 4 and 3 in the morning.

She got an early lead and never let up to record her first win of the week.

The afternoon clash against Taranaki’s Tineka Kumeroa was more of a slog or as McDonald’s caddie, mother Karen, put it — “a bloody marathon”.

McDonald battled with her swing a little and had a few three-putt greens but played a “beautiful” iron into her 17th hole to clinch the win.

HBPB No.2 Janie Field is old enough to be the grandmother of most of the field but again proved her worth.

She had a half in the the team half against Aorangi and was gutted to lose the last hole and the match against Taranaki.

Team captain Martha Manaena has been inspirational. Like McDonald, she had two wins yesterday — on the 16th in the morning and the 15th in the afternoon.

Heading into today’s sole and final round of round-robin play, five teams were in the hunt for semifinal berths — defending champions Auckland, Manawatu/Wanganui, North Harbour, Canterbury and Bay of Plenty.

The Aucklanders have been so dominant that the big news from their performance yesterday was Fiona Xu’s morning half against Wellington’s Erika Cui.

They have won every other match.

Semifinals and position playoffs are being held tomorrow morning and the final will be played tomorrow afternoon.