New boy Morley gets his first rep victory

GOLF

THE “new boy” of the Poverty Bay-East Coast team saved his best to last at the Freyberg Masters interprovincial in Hamilton yesterday.

Former Poverty Bay cricket representative Glenn Morley notched his first victory as a PBEC golf rep on the final day of the over-40s matchplay tournament on Hamilton’s St Andrew’s course.

“It’s been great,” Morley said of the week-long event after beating Southland’s Ngarimu Paraki 3 and 1 yesterday afternoon.

The southerners defeated PBEC 4-1, consigning the country’s smallest golfing province to 15th and last overall after nine rounds of matchplay over five days.

PBEC ended on half a team point and seven individual wins.

A team victory would have lifted PBEC above Taranaki (1 team point, 11.5 individual wins).

It wasn’t to be, although most of the matches were close.

PBEC No.1 Anaru Reedy lost 3 and 2 to Simon Hollyer, No.2 Simon Jeune lost 1-down to Peter Buckley, No.3 Tony Akroyd lost 2 and 1 to Doug Carmichael and No.4 Peter Clayton lost 4 and 3 to Glen Sutherland.

Morley was rapt with his win after a disappointing 18th-hole loss in his previous match.

“I was gutted,” he said of the defeat by his Otago opponent. “I should have won it.”

He responded, as any higher-level sportsperson does, by learning from his mistakes.

“It’s been clear to me (at this tournament) that I can match these guys tee to green but I have got to learn to putt better.”

As a veteran of 100 games of representative cricket for Poverty Bay, Morley knows all about pressure but he rates himself a golf rep rookie.

“I’m the new boy in this event. I’m an older age but I’m still learning.”

As to the overall experience, Morley said: “It’s been great.

“It’s such a fantastic golf course. I’ve absolutely loved it. I’m so pleased to have had the chance to play at the masters.”

At the other end of the leaderboard, Bay of Plenty made it two masters titles on the trot.

They finished on seven team points and 28.5 individual wins — half a team point ahead of Manawatu-Wanganui (6.5 and 25), with Southland third (5.5, 22.5).

While PBEC were well adrift of that, they once again proved competitive at this level despite missing a couple of first-string players.