Locked in a three-way tussle heading into the seventh and final round of the Lion Foundation Freyberg Masters provincial golf tournament at Invercargill Golf Club, Northland fell at the last hurdle when they went down to Taranaki four games to one.
The Northland contingent of Waitangi's Jack Winwood, along with Carrington's
Bob Shirley, Mangawhai's Gavin Walsh, Whangarei's Alistair Nicholls, Scott Wilson of Kerikeri had a great start to the five-day tournament, defeating their nemesis North Harbour three games to two in round one. However, their successful morning was dampened by a 4-1 loss to Waikato on Monday afternoon.
Refocused after their round three bye, Northland had a stunning 4.5-.5 win against Bay of Plenty to see them up with division two's front runners.
Their round five 4.5-0.5 victory over a struggling Poverty Bay set Northland up with a good chance of topping Division Two, however, they crumbled under pressure to a showstopping Canterbury contingent. Northland No1 Bob Shirley was the only Northland golfer to secure a game when he beat Peter Fox.
Their 4-1 loss left them on three points, in second equal place with Waikato and Bay of Plenty behind North Harbour on four points, and ahead of Canterbury and Taranaki on 2.5 points.
Northland needed a big final round win against Taranaki if they wanted to improve on their sixth place at last year's Freyberg Masters in Rotorua and progress through to this morning's semifinals and the final.
"It was not to be," team manager and reserve player Barry Southgate said. Scott Wilson won the only game in round seven, and the rest of the team went down to a determined Taranaki side.
"So we just missed out on the semifinals, leaving us to play for the minor places again," Southgate said. "The tournament and all of the games were very close, and while we are disappointed with today's [Thursday's] effort, we are happy with how we went overall."
In this morning's semifinals Auckland takes on North Harbour and Wellington faces Waikato.
