Golf: Northland women finish fifth at Toro Interprovincials

Northland's Shardae Bulkeley tees off on the 16th hole at Sherwood Park Golf Club during her team's playoff against Waikato during the Toro Interprovincials. PHOTO/MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM

Northland have completed a gritty showing at the Toro Interprovincials with a creditable fifth placing.

Taking on Sherwood Park Golf Club, Northland were not expected to be a major contender but for most of the tournament they looked likely of being a dark horse contender.

Unfortunately a semifinal berth was a bridge too far despite the splendid efforts of captain Kylie Jacoby, Belinda May, Shardae Bulkeley, Alayna Cox, Jo Taylor and Jenny Peters.

Despite this, they had an opportunity for a top five finish but that required victory over Waikato.

Northland had a rough start to their playoff encounter as Taylor found the going tough against Katherine Janphanich.

Taylor eventually went down 6&5 but Cox brought Northland right back into the contest.

She took the lead over Jill Morgan early in the contest and never relinquished the advantage, finishing a 4&3 winner.

Bulkeley was the next one up and looked to take full toll of playing on her home course. She's the only player in the Northland squad who calls the Sherwood Park greens home.

She came up against Zoann Huang, who immediately took the lead and had a four-hole advantage going into the back nine.

Bulkeley pulled the game back as much as she could and it went down to the final hole, however Huang held on for the win.

This meant numbers one and two, Jacoby and May, needed wins to secure the tie.

May, a student at Kamo High School and competing in her second Interprovincial, held serve early on in her battle with Fai Tongdethsri as she went into the back nine one up.

Tongdethsri put a lot of pressure on May during the back nine but May again showed a lot of maturity to finish with the two up victory.

This left Jacoby with the chance to secure the fifth placing.

Jacoby and Waikato's Hitomi Tamura went at each other right from the start with nothing to separate them in the first five holes.

Tamura then gained a slender advantage, turning into the back nine with a one-hole lead.

But Jacoby kept focus and tied things up by the end of the 13th hole, setting up a great showdown over the last five holes.

Despite Tamura's best efforts it was the Northlander who pulled through, giving Northland the victory and fifth place.