Golf: Northland settle for third in Garrard Shield

Northland put up a gallant fight, but had to settle for third in the Garrard Shield. Photo/Getty Images

Northland, Auckland, Waikato and Bay of Plenty golfers converged on the Grange Golf Course as Auckland played host to the annual quadrangular matchplay competition.

Twelve players from each district attended the event with the Garrard Shield side consisting of eight men and the Ralph Cup consisting of four under-19 players.

Players were met with rain and wind on Saturday as Northland matched up against Auckland for the first round.

Northland number one Christian Nitsche was only three holes into his tie when play was suspended because of flooded greens.

However, the delay failed to dampen players' efforts as both districts walked away with honours as Northland won the Garrard Shield match 5.5 to 2.5, while Auckland won the Ralph Cup match 4-0.

This left the Northland men in a great position to pounce on the reigning champions Bay of Plenty after they had a disappointing 6.5-1.5 loss to Waikato.

Unfortunately the script wasn't followed and Northland went down in a tight battle 4.5-3.5 while the juniors bounced back to record a 2-all draw.

Waikato continued their winning ways in the afternoon, taking Auckland apart and placing themselves in a dominant position moving into Sunday's final round against Northland.

This match-up would determine the winner of the Garrard Shield.

Northland needed to beat Waikato 5.5-2.5 to claim the title after their narrow loss to Bay of Plenty.

Waikato were in fine form during their final round with their side boosted by Nick Coxon, back from representing NZ at the Asia Pacific Championship in Korea.

The Northland side fought hard right to the end but went down 5-3 to leave Waikato unbeaten over the weekend and ready to lift the prestigious Garrard Shield, stopping Bay of Plenty from completing a record winning streak.

The Northland juniors continued to fight hard over the weekend but went down against Waikato in their final match 2.5-1.5.

This was the last representative fixture for 2016 for the juniors and the last official representative match for the senior men before they head to the Interprovincial tournament in Taranaki at the end of November.

The senior side was selected and announced on Sunday. The makeup of the team is Luke Brown (The Pines), Christian Nitsche (Whangarei), Sheldon Kearns (Northland), Taylor Gill (BOI Kerikeri), Alex Neely (BOI Kerikeri), and Brad Bonnington (Wellsford).