Golf: Islands dominate nine hole tournament

Gail Cash (left), Keith Stone, Jacky Fenney and Bruce Honeybee. Photo / Supplied

The second New Zealand 9 Hole Masters Tournament has concluded with Bay of Islands club members winning three of the six divisions.

Running across three days, the 110-plus field was split into six groups, with local member Bruce Honeybone winning the men's 2nd Division, and Jinni Park winning the lead group for the women by two points.

Runner-up in the men's 2nd division was Matarua's Chris Fenny on 56 points, with Whangarei's Michael Olsen placing two shots back for third.

Park won the top women's group with a score of 60 points, two ahead of Joanne Brunker (Northland) and four clear of 3rd place getter, Liz Furey (Northland). In the top men's division, defending champion Frank Weber could not catch Keith Stone from Warkworth who posted a top score of 22 on the final day.

In the third division Gail Cash (Warkworth) won with 58 points on a countback from Northland's Cherie Finlayson.

In third place was another Northland club member, Bev Smith, with 57 points.

With the long-term future of their club in doubt after their farm-owned land was recently sold, Jacky Fenney from Matarua noted that her second division win might be the last "swansong" for Matarua members. Fenney amassed 57 points, five ahead of Judi Dooling (Warkworth) and six ahead of Ruth Harvey (Warkworth).

As part of the 9 hole initiative, Bay of Islands Golf Club organisers welcomed higher handicap players to enter.

Playing off their local club handicaps, Ros Simpson (Bay of Islands) was the top scoring lady with 57 points, the same score also posted by Bruce Young from Northland in this group.

The 9 hole Masters is open to both registered 18 and 9 hole members, and is timely with the recent changes by NZ Golf to have all members listed with 18 hole handicaps, regardless of membership category.

The 2015 tournament welcomed players from 19 different clubs.