Match draw proves costly

Northland's controversial half with Southland yesterday cost them the chance to finish higher at the Toro Interprovincial Golf Championships at the Riverside Golf Club at Lochiel.

Northland's top women's team was leading the match 2.5-1.5 with number-five Jo Taylor trailing her opponent Danielle Price by one hole on the 18th.

"Jo's opponent picked up her ball after missing her putt, so we assumed because she took her ball out of play she had forfeited the hole but apparently the ruling was she was allowed to replace it, with only a penalty, and so she was able to halve the hole," team selector Sam Dangen said.

Had the decision gone Taylor's way Northland would have won the hole, halved the game and won the match. Instead they drew the match and finished fourth in Division One - half a point behind Southland - who play Manawatu-Wanganui for seventh place today. Northland face off against Hawkes Bay-Poverty Bay for ninth place.

Dangen said the players were disappointed they hadn't quite managed to bounce back after suffering two 5-0 defeats on Thursday to defending champions Auckland and their likely challenger for this year's title, North Harbour.

"We felt we could have done better during the week but things didn't really go our way ... still most of the girls have been reasonably happy with their performances," she said.

One of the biggest problems for the teams was Dangen herself picking up a side strain, causing her to pull out of Thursday morning's match against Auckland. The experienced number-four tried to come back and play in Thursday afternoon's pivotal match against North Harbour but was never in her game.

"I thought if I took the morning off I might be okay but that didn't work and I played terribly," she said.

The development of the team's juniors: number-one Brooke Kingi and number-two Jodi McAlister was the most pleasing aspect of this year's tournament, Dangen felt.

"Although they came up against some really good players on a regular basis, they go out there and give it their all and that's good for their game," she said.