Second win to Solly as BoP birdies fly

Second win: Poverty Bay East Coast No.4 David Solomann had his second win of the national interprovincial golf tournament in Auckland yesterday. PBEC lost 4-1 to Bay of Plenty. Picture by Paul Rickard

GOLF

PARS are not good enough.

That harsh lesson was learned birdie by birdie — with a couple of eagles thrown in — by Poverty Bay-East Coast at the national interprovincial in Auckland yesterday.

PBEC were beaten 4-1 by Bay of Plenty on Day 3 of the matchplay tournament being held on the Whitford Park course.

Auckland-based Whitford and Waikohu club member David Solomann was the whitewash-saver for the second time.

Playing at No.4, “Solly” beat Jayme Martin 2 and 1 for his second individual win of what has been a challenging week so far for the country’s smallest province.

The other four PBEC team members have 100 percent loss records, which BoP added to in emphatic fashion yesterday morning.

PBEC No.1 Hukanui Brown lost 7 and 6 to Mitchell Kale, No.2 William Brown 5 and 4 to Shaun Campbell, No.3 Reef Pohatu 5 and 3 to James Tauariki and No.5 Dwayne Russell 8 and 6 to Joshua Morris.

“It was a tough day at the office,” said team manager Dave Keown as he watched nearly as many birdies thrown at his players as the climactic scene in a famous Alfred Hitchcock movie.

All four were on the receiving end of red-figure golf.

“Dwayne struggled a bit but his mate was 3-under,” said Keown.

“Reef knocked it around OK and lost 5 and 4 to James (the 2018 King of the Coast winner at Tolaga Bay), who was 6-under.”

It was the same case for Brown and Brown.

William Brown was 1-under when he lost. His opponent was 6-under.

Kale had two eagles, including par-4, and a handful of birdies against Hukanui Brown.

“Those (BoP) guys just absolutely smashed it,” said Keown.

Solomann’s familiarity with the course and matchplay ability were to the fore in his impressive win.

It had to be. He was 3-under the card after four holes and only 1-up.

From there they traded blows. Solomann stole a win on their 13th hole when he sank a 20-footer and Martin three-putted, won the 14th then birdied 15 to to 3-up. He lost 16 but a regulation par on 17 sealed the win.

Only one round was played yesterday after a stop-start Wednesday because of rain.

At one stage on the Wednesday, play was suspended but the players had to stay put for 45 minutes before it resumed.

“It was a bizarre day. That’s the best way I could describe it,” said Keown.

Despite their struggles, Keown said the team were in “pretty good heart” and “good spirits”.

PBEC cannot finish off the bottom of Section 1.

They have no team points and 2 individual points from Solomann’s wins. Second-from-bottom BoP have 1.5 team points and 10 individual wins.

PBEC had a bye this morning and finish their tournament this afternoon against Southland, who beat Waikato yesterday.