Northland's top women's golfers are determined to improve on their best Interprovincial finish at last week's Toro championships when the competition moves to Auckland in a year. The 2009 Interprovincial Championships will be on more familiar ground at the Grange Golf Club and team member Aroha Tito said they planned tostay together and were already focusing on a win. "We've all vowed to be there and we know that we can do it, so we plan to give it a damn good go," Tito said yesterday. The team arrived back from Nelson on Sunday pleased at their fourth placing. "We were happy to be where we were at the end but we weren't too happy about how we finished our tournament," she said. After two losses on the opening day, Northland beat some of the country's best teams, including 2007 champions Bay of Plenty, in a four-game winning run that saw them qualify for the semifinals on Saturday. The team then went up against the eventual champions, Waikato, but despite being on level terms on the front nine, the Waikato team pulled away from them in the closing stages to win 3.5-1.5. Number two Phoebe Perrin continued her wonderful form of the week with a win over Erin Hawe 3&2 while Sunny Namkoong halved her match with Hanna Seifert. Number one Caroline Bon pressured fellow New Zealand player Emily Perry but still went down 2&1. Jo Wech took her match to the 18th against her opponent, Charlotte Brooks, but Tito was well beaten by Kelly Nicholas on the 14th hole. Waikato went on to beat Auckland 3.5-1.5 in the final. The other beaten semifinalists, Southland, had a stronger record in the weaker pool of the two and they were awarded third place without having to play Northland. Tito said she believed her side's strong showing stemmed from players swapping their individual games for a team way of playing. "We really gelled as a team this last week and that's pretty good considering that we all live so far away, and are different ages and from different backgrounds," she said.
