Golf: Deflated Bay men struggle on day one

It wasn't a memorable start for Hawke's Bay at the national men's inter-provincial golf tournament in Hamilton yesterday.

There were highlights ... but it wasn't a memorable start for Hawke's Bay at the national men's inter-provincial golf tournament in Hamilton yesterday.

The David Howie-managed Hawke's Bay team opened their campaign with a 3-2 loss against Northland in the morning round at the Hamilton club and then lost 5-0 to Wellington in the afternoon.

"Against Wellington the boys were deflated after losing to Northland. Wellington were coming off the bye in the morning and were fresh. They were ready for us too because we had taken them close during the Shand Cup fixture earlier in the season," Howie said.

Hawke's Bay club player Joshua Dasent celebrated his Toro tournament debut with a 2 up win against Northland No 4 Sheldon Kearns. Maraenui's Hawke's Bay No 1 Russell Mitchell beat his Northland counterpart Kadin Neho 5 and 3.

"We had Northland and were going along well during the first nine holes. We then backed off a bit and Northland capitalised," Howie said.

Onga Onga's Ben Swinburne was beaten 5 and 3 by Northland No 2 Luke Brown. Maraenui's Carlos Tawera was pipped 2 and 1 by Northland No 3 Alex Neely and Onga Onga's Steven Harris lost 2 down to Northland No 5 Lee Neumann.

Seventeen-year-old Hawke's Bay reserve Dallas Williams, a member of both the Hawke's Bay and Wairoa clubs, replaced Harris for the Wellington fixture. He was impressive during a 2 and 1 loss to Wellington No 5, former New Zealand amateur champion and regular national rep Thomas Spearman-Burn. This was Williams debut at this level. Mitchell lost 3 and 2 to Wellington No 1 Jonathan Cane, Swinburne was beaten 7 and 6 by Wellington No 2 Brayden Mazey who shot a six under par round, Tawera lost 4 and 3 to Wellington No 3 Marc Jennings and Dasent lost by the same margin against Wellington No 4 Daniel Hillier.

Howie pointed out things won't get any easier for his troops today. They take on Manawatu-Wanganui this morning and North Harbour this afternoon. North Harbour beat Auckland 3-2 in their only outing yesterday and Manawatu-Wanganui beat Poverty Bay 4-1.

Northland and Tasman share the lead in division two while hosts Waikato lead division one after a comfortable 3.5-1.5 win over Taranaki and a 3-2 win over 2011 champions Southland.