Peter Williams: Akarana playing the big boys

By the time you read this I'll be on my way to Pukekohe. It's Bissett Shield Grand Final day and the likely lads from Akarana are trying to win the symbol of Auckland golf's interclub playing supremacy for the first time in over 40 years.

The contrast between us and the opposition could hardly be more marked.

The Auckland Golf Club at Middlemore is the richest and most exclusive in the country. To become a full playing member you have to be well connected.

Akarana is the epitome of an inclusive blue-collar golf club with an undersized course in the heart of working class Mount Roskill. If you want to join, come and pay a modest entrance fee and there's every chance you'll be on the books within days.

Today Auckland's 12-man team has one former amateur champion in Chris Johns. Two others, Michael Barltrop and Brent Patterson, played in New Zealand Eisenhower Trophy teams while Ben Wallace and Fraser Wilkin are top juniors.

Akarana's best player, Brent Fabish, squeaked into the Auckland 10-man team last year. A couple of others, Mark Pirihi and Tony Simpson, have also played in expanded provincial sides. But our little star, 14-year-old Seve Ha, is the national under-15 champion and in the provincial under-23 team.

Auckland have flown Johns back from Brisbane, where he's recently gone to live, so he can play today.

Akarana will take a bus to Pukekohe.

Auckland shared the last Bissett Shield final with The Grange in 2003. They won the trophy in its first year, 1933, but have been a force since 1995 with five outright or shared titles in the last 10 years.

Akarana, Bissett Shield winners only four times in 72 years, haven't won the premier interclub trophy since 1961.

Despite Akarana being top qualifiers, I rate us the underdogs today. We're a bunch of solid golfers who enjoy the team environment and each other's company.

But what we have discovered is that in head-to-head matchplay, reputations count for nothing. Even the best can stumble on any given day.

Akarana might have one advantage - because we qualified first for the final we've all had the chance to play Pukekohe a few times recently. It's a good enough course, although the wet, humid weather has brought on a serious attack of the "dollar spot" disease on the greens.

It's a big day for both clubs. Our respective handicap teams are playing the final of their grade too. I never like to predict golf contests but I'm taking tomorrow off.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY