Northland's promising start to the Lion Foundation Freyberg Masters unravelled in the final two days of play, when the experienced team "choked" at Invercargill Golf Club.
Jack Winwood, Northland's No2 said the team started brilliantly on Monday to set themselves up with a good chance of making yesterday's semifinals.
"But we choked
and we let the situation get to us. We knew we had to win both our remaining matches against Canterbury and Taranaki and we didn't put it together," he said.
Northland were up against a tough Canterbury unit during round six on Thursday and went down 4-1, leaving Northland in battle with Waikato and Bay of Plenty over a semi's berth.
"Once we lost to Canterbury, the pressure came on for us to beat Taranaki - it was a big hill to get over, but we couldn't do it."
Scott Wilson was the only winner during Northland's 4-1 loss to Taranaki. In Division 2, North Harbour and Waikato progressed into the semifinal to play Auckland and Wellington respectively, while Northland played Hawke's Bay for ninth and tenth place, and went down 3 to 1, with Shirley getting a win, and Wilson scoring a half. Their 10th place was a slip down the ladder after finishing sixth at last year's tournament.
North Harbour and Wellington won the semifinals and played off yesterday in a closely fought and tense final, with North Harbour the eventual victors, 3-2.
