Half to Reedy before rain decides round 7

GOLF

POVERTY Bay-East Coast are on the board.

But it was the elements, not their golf, that earned them their first team point — half a point to be exact — at the Freyberg Masters men’s interprovincial in Hamilton yesterday afternoon.

Heavy rain forced organisers to abandon play and all clashes were recorded as halves.

It meant PBEC remained 15th and bottom of the table heading into today’s final two rounds on the St Andrew’s course.

PBEC had only one round to go as they had the bye this morning before ending the over-40s matchplay tournament against Southland this afternoon.

Heading into this morning, they were sitting on half a team point and six individual wins — half a point behind Taranaki.

PBEC No.1 Anaru Reedy ended his run of five losses at the top of the order with a half as PBEC lost 4½-½ to Otago yesterday morning.

“I was a little disappointed,” Reedy said of his clash with Travis Cook.

“I should have won.”

Cook’s putter was his saviour.

There was never more than one hole between them “but he binned so many putts”, Reedy said.

“He was doing it all day — it was uncanny.”

The binned putts included a crucial 10-footer to halve the hole and the match on 18.

Glenn Morley, at No.4, went agonisingly close to collecting a second half in his first taste of interprovincial golf.

Morley lost 1-down to Steve Horn, continuing his education in the higher level of amateur golf.

“The debutants have played some pretty good golf,” Reedy said of Morley and fellow first-timer Rod Moore.

“They have come up against some very good players on the day.”

Moore, at No.5, lost 4 and 3 to Mike Wray, No.2 Simon Jeune fell 3 and 2 to Rodney Krahenbring and No.3 Tony Akroyd was well beaten 6 and 5 by John McIntee.

The team had plenty of time to prepare for their last match against the southerners, who were sitting ninth on the table after seven rounds.

“Hopefully we put it all together,” Reedy said.

Bay of Plenty led the standings on 5.5 team points and 23 individual wins, with Wellington second on 4.5 and 21 and Manawatu-Wanganui third on 4.5 and 19.