GOLF: County fairways become fairer

ANENDRA SINGH
It's an annual men's senior representative tournament but from a Hawke's Bay perspective it's best to let the women take centre stage.
That was the verdict from Stortford Auto Sales-sponsored Hawke's Bay men's team manager, Allen Forrest, after the men finished third yesterday at the end of the Bay Harbour Quadrangular Tournament at Hastings Golf Club. They lost 8-6 to Bay of Plenty yesterday and 10-4 to North Harbour on Saturday morning but crushed Poverty Bay 11 -2 in the afternoon.
``We were always going to struggle,' Forrest lamented, understandably resigning himself to the loss of Bay top seed and New Zealand representative Nick Gillespie, who was competing at the Cuesport New Zealand men's club team championship in the South Island with fellow club and Bay mates Stuart Duff, Mike Wilson and Brook Morpeth.
Incidentally the Hastings four finished fourth at the Ashburton Golf Club, where Akarana, last year's runner-up, won by seven shots from Cambridge.
But let's stick to the game plan here - enter the Hawke's Bay/Poverty Bay women at Bridge Pa for what should be a groundbreaking move in golfing circles considering New Zealand Golf is on the brink of a major campaign to boost the number and profile of women in the sport to ensure the code doesn't die.
It's not so much that the HBPB No.1 and 2 women's teams fared any better - the No.1 side finished third and the No.2 team were last.
The top team of Lauree Southerden, Jaimie McIvor, Vicky Turley and Lynne Roberts beat their No.2 side of Kate Chadwick, Kathy Olsen, Jo Edge and Poverty Bay's Jamie-Lee Foss 3-1 but succumbing 4-0 to North Harbour and 3-1 to BOP.
The No.2 HBPB team also lost 1-2 to North Harbour and also by the same margin to BOP, although against Harbour, Chadwick carded 78 compared with the Harbour top seed's score of 72. Olsen was the standout player for the side with a win and two halves.
Foss' opponent defaulted due to a sore back, according to HBPB manager Kaylene Clarkson.
But Clarkson was not too preoccupied with the results of the HBPB teams as she was about the women's entry into big-time provincial golf.
``We can get more competition and play teams we don't normally play before big tournaments such as the Interprovincials [the battle for supremacy among amateur provincial sides later in the year],' she told SportToday, excited that next year, everything going to plan, Poverty Bay will host the quadrangular.
``Our team is so depleted we need to get new players exposure, and tournaments like this will be great.' HBPB have lost the services of Eastern Institute of Technology lecturer Jill Morgan (studying), Caroline Allott (taking a year off golf) and Janie Field (focusing only on the Masters this year). Former Napier Girls' High School pupil Southerden is also US-bound for tertiary education.
However, Clarkson is delighted that former Hastings Girls' High School and HBPB rep Sheridan Graham, who is studying in the US too on a golf scholarship, is soon returning to the Bay for good.
``We also have Vicky Small, of Hastings, who will be in the frame for the Judy Pearson Tournament at Dannevirke on May 24.'