It was a matter of who adjusted better to the conditions and that proved to be the Bay . . . just.
Jeune slotted a clutch par putt on the 36th against Andrew Higham to seal a sixth consecutive pennants title for his club.
He has been a common denominator in all six of those wins — one of them jointly shared with Patutahi when the 2017 final was rained off.
The 2021 team effort was anchored by their lead-out men — No.3 Glenn Morley and No.4 Nick Richardson — who handled the conditions admirably to register wins.
Morley played superbly considering the relentless wind to beat Thomas Donovan 5 and 4.
The turning point in the match came over the latter holes of the opening 18.
All-square after 14 holes, Morley won the 15th, 16th and 17th with pars, then birdied the 18th to head into the lunch break 4-up.
Having played 100 games of representative cricket for Poverty Bay in his time, Morley called on all of that experience.
“It’s very similar to constructing an innings while batting,” he said. “You play in the moment, focus on the next shot and don’t get ahead of yourself.
“You have to hang tough when things are going against you, be patient and believe you can turn it around, as things can change so quickly.”
Morley dropped just three shots in the first 18 and adhered to his words in the afternoon round to post the team’s first win.
Richardson, who made his Oligoi debut this year, made it two wins for the team when he defeated Jason Devery 4 and 3.
Like Morley, he set up victory in the opening 18.
Richardson powered to a 5-up lead after nine holes and went into the break 4-up. After 27 holes he was 3-up and from there he held on to break a 1-all deadlock.
“I played pretty solid. I got up (in the match) early and stayed there, and JD (Devery) missed some crucial putts.”
Te Puia had earlier got on the board courtesy of a big win to William Brown, who joined the Coast team this year after several successful years with Poverty Bay.
The Poverty Bay greenkeeper was always in control against Pete Anderson and the pair shook hands on the 30th.
With Poverty Bay 4-2 up (two points for a win), all attention shifted to the Jeune-Higham duel.
They were no strangers to playing each other, and there was always a sense this would be close.
It was advantage Jeune at 3-up after nine and 2-up after 18. But Higham, searching for an Oligoi title to go with his many individual triumphs, fought back on the third nine to take a 2-up lead into a tense back nine holes.
Jeune won the 33rd and 34th holes to square the match and should have sealed the deal on the 35th only to botch a tiddler putt for par, which would have won the hole and the final.
“It was tiny, I didn’t know what planet I was on,” he said afterwards.
All-square playing the 36th, Higham had to win the par-4 hole to force a sudden-death playoff.
Both men missed the green for two — Jeune hitting his approach into the left bunker, Higham’s second finishing to the right of the green.
Jeune put his third to about 8 feet above the hole and Higham chipped to about 3 feet.
Having put the nightmare on 17 well out of his thoughts, Jeune calmly rolled in his high-pressure putt to the cheers of his teammates and a full clubhouse as the final of the Endeavour men’s pennants was also held at the Bay that day.
With typical Jeune modesty, the team captain said he was “pretty happy” with their performance and that it was good for the series to be decided by such a close contest.
He paid tribute to the Springs for giving them such “a great game” and for the spirit in which it was played.
Morley, who had six wins from eight matches over the series including the semifinal and final, won the Sportsmanship Trophy as player of the series.
“I really enjoyed playing competitive matchplay and the team element woven into it,” he said.
Patutahi won the Pounamu Trophy for third.
Electrinet Park (2) beat Tolaga Bay 5-3 in the playoff for fifth. Pete Stewart beat Taine Lincoln 3 and 2, Tony Akroyd beat Neil Hansen 1-up, Zach Rolls avenged his thrashing at the hands of Bruce Yates earlier in the pennants with a 1-up win and Anthony Pahina halved with late call-up Tuki Sweeney.
