Luke Brown credits 'Northland heart' in historic Toro win

Victorious Northland team of Luke Brown, Dale Clarke, Kadin Neho, Taylor Gill and Alex Neely celebrate winning the Toro Men's Interprovincial Golf Championship in Christchurch. Photo / Martin Hunter

Luke Brown has won multiple New Zealand golf tournaments, played all over the world but he says his proudest moment is winning last week's Toro Interprovincial for Northland.

"To go and win the Toro, which would probably be the most special moment of my golfing career of everything that I've done, its probably the most proud I've ever been."

Brown was part of the five-man Northland team to win the 2018 Toro Interprovincial golf tournament, in Christchurch last week, for the first time in its 68-year history.

Ranked third in New Zealand for amateurs, Brown was set to turn professional at the end of the year, which would have precluded him from playing in the event.

"Two weeks out from Toro, I decided not to turn pro and I was going to stay amateur and to be able to say we've finally won Toro, it's just changed the way Northland golf looks and now people know that we've got some pretty good talent coming out of there."

This would have been Brown's eighth Toro not making the final but he said Northland golf had been building to this moment.

"In the end, the team culture just got better and better so in a way, we had built up to getting to that point, it was going to happen eventually, we just didn't know when it was going to happen.

Northland were clear underdogs going into the final against Auckland, after losing to them in the round-robin 4-1.

"We went out knowing that they were a strong team but we played our own game, we didn't even get caught up in it.

"They were never going to go into the final with a whole lot of grit and go 'we'll just walk over these guys, we smoked them in round robin' but that's where the Northland heart comes from."

Brown said the team spent the week together, cooking meals for each other and forming bonds which he felt, won them the title.

"For us we were always together, it didn't matter if we lost, they'd come back and see me finish or we'd go see Alex finish so that's how we saw it and that's how we took control.

"Golf is a very lonely, very individual sport but as soon as you're playing with a group of good guys, I think that's what made it so cool."

He said the team's youngest member, Taylor Gill (20), handled the pressure better than anybody.

"Being the youngest, he was would have been nervous but he coped with it so well. He won both his games in the semi-final and final, which was really important for us getting over the line."

Gill, who was playing his third Toro, said the nerves really struck him on the final day where Northland would go on to beat golfing powerhouses Canterbury and Auckland.

"That whole day from the moment I got up, I was so nervous, the most nervous I've ever been on a golf course.

"I usually pride myself as not getting that nervous but I couldn't eat anything that whole day, I probably ate only two sandwiches all day, I was that nervous."

Gill was part of the Northland team that reached the semi-finals in 2016 but he said this year's team had a special connection.

"Northland has always been known to have one of the better team cultures. We all know each other really well, we have a bit if banter between each other throughout the week. I feel proud to have shared it with them and to have won as well."

Gill said while golf was not the most popular sport with young people, he hoped this win would spur others on to create a new generation of Northland golfers.

"We're not the biggest of provinces and we haven't done the best in the past so it'll be pretty good for Northland golf and junior golf as well."

The Northland women's team began their tournament this week in Christchurch and despite early wins against Hawke's Bay, Aorangi and Otago, two heavy losses yesterday to tournament favourites North Harbour and Auckland, has meant they will not progress from the round-robin stage.