Off the tee: Southland tourney ripe for new winner

North Harbour won both the men's and women's interprovincial team titles last year, but they have never won the Southland Invitational, the third of the big national team titles.

The 72-hole event at the Invercargill Golf Club this weekend is aggregate strokeplay, with four of the five individual scores to count for each round.

Auckland won last year's contest by three strokes from Otago, with Kevin Chun taking the individual title. But Chun is now a professional, and only Logan Holzer returns this weekend. It was Auckland's sixth win but their first since 1993.

Last year Harbour were fourth, and they make only one change from the team who won the interprovincial matchplay at Titirangi in November, with Sam Shin replacing Joon Sang Chung.

Bay of Plenty, who won this contest in 2001 and 2003, lost to Harbour in the interprovincial final. But with 15-year-old Danny Lee in stunning form and the experience of Mark Smith, Eddie Burgess, Kevin Smith and Josh Geary, they will start as favourites.

Those who remember how Lee and the others struggled in the wind at Titirangi will be interested to see how they cope with the southern blasts that can sweep across the 6068m Otatara course.

Waikato won in Southland two years ago, and Mark Purser, James Gill, Richard Wright, Brendan Seidel and Jim Cusdin have the talent to regain the title.

Canterbury haven't won for six years, but they have the best record of all the provinces with eight victories.

Otago surprised many by finishing second last time, and Manawatu-Wanganui caused a major upset by winning in 2002. Southland haven't won since 1985.

Only three Australians have entered the national women's strokeplay championship to be played from next Thursday at the Muriwai links on Auckland's west coast.

Best known is Haeji Kang, who was based at Whangarei and played for Northland, before moving to Surfers Paradise.

In December she teamed with Amy Yang, recent winner of the ANZ Ladies Masters professional tournament, to win the New Zealand foursomes title.

Queenslander Heather Warren has also played at Muriwai before, while 13-year-old Jessica Noh from the Ryde-Parramatta Club in Sydney is one of Australia's most promising juniors.

Defending the title will be Sharon Ahn, who won as a 14-year-old at Titirangi after helping New Zealand beat the Aussies in the Tasman Cup. She plays at Takapuna in the North Harbour district. Muriwai is also Harbour territory but a very different test.

The form player must be Sarah Nicholson from the Hutt, who won the Australian strokeplay title in stunning fashion a few weeks ago and also beat the leading Australians to win the Lake Macquarie title early in the year.

Next month she will represent New Zealand at the Queen Sirikit Cup in Adelaide along with Aucklanders Da Som Lee and Natasha Krishna, both of whom will be contenders at Muriwai.

Big-hitting Bubba Watson, who graduated from the Nationwide tour to the USPGA tour this year, was the unlikely setter of a tour accuracy record last weekend.

Finishing equal third in the Chrysler Classic of Tucson, he became the first player on the tour to go 72 holes without a bogey since Lee Trevino at the 1974 Greater New Orleans Open.

Michelle Wie, an American of Korean heritage, drew the crowds but lesser-known South Koreans have been collecting the cash at the LPGA tournaments in Hawaii over the past two weeks.

Joo Mi Kim won the season-opening SBS Open at Turtle Bay, then this week Meena Lee took the US$165,000 ($249,000) first prize at Kapolei after a playoff with fellow Korean Seon Hwa Lee.

Wie finished third to earn US$72,875, her first cheque in four pro starts. The 16-year-old was disqualified in the Samsung world championship in October and missed the cut in two men's events.