Golf: Akarana gets the golfing year under way

Mike Leitch will be teeing up at Akarana Golf Club tomorrow at 7.40am in what has become an Auckland Anniversary Weekend routine for the tall left-hander.

Leitch, who plays most of his golf across Dominion Rd at the Maungakiekie Club where he is the greenkeeper, won the first Auckland Anniversary championship at Akarana in 1969 and he repeated the feat in 1981, 1995, 1997 and 1998.

Last year he finished equal second and his form remains so solid that another victory this weekend cannot be ruled out.

The 54-hole event was played in winter from 1933 to 1968 with the winners including national champions Pax Smith, Ross Newdick and Walter Godfrey.

Terry Pulman, Terry Cochrane, Ted McDougall, David Somervaille and Richard Lee have Anniversary tournament wins alongside their national titles.

Former national strokeplay champion Marcus Wheelhouse shot a course record 63 on his way to victory in 1992.

The tournament marks the beginning of the competitive golfing year in Auckland and always draws a big field. The club has accepted 160 entries including former winners Leitch, Martin Phillips (1991), Reg Roache (1996) and Logan Holzer (2004).

Last year's winner, Andy Gang from Pakuranga, was eight under the card and won by eight shots from Leitch, Franz Schwanner (Manukau) and Albert Kim (Whitford Park). Gang and Kim were part of an Auckland team who won the Southland Invitational a few weeks later.

Gang has since turned professional but Kim is in the field with members of the Auckland team that reached the semifinals of the national interprovincial championship at Titirangi in November. The North Harbour team, who won that title, are represented by Steven Han and Joon Sang Chung.

Among the visiting players is Mark Smith, captain of the Bay of Plenty team that dominated provincial golf for three years.

Roache was the last Akarana player to win the club's major event and that was 10 years ago. Talented teen Seve Ha, who is the club champion, was in the running until a poor third round last January and will again be a contender.

The course has changed considerably since Wheelhouse's record round and, with midweek rain, should be in good condition for some hot scoring. The field will play 18 holes tomorrow, Sunday and Monday.

North Harbour golfer Sharon Ahn, who shocked the visiting Aussies and everyone else by winning the national strokeplay title at Titirangi at the age of 14, will defend her championship on Harbour territory in March.

The 72-hole event will be at Muriwai from March 10-12. It will be Muriwai's second national tournament in five months after the club staged the men's Freyberg Masters last November.

The men's national strokeplay and matchplay tournaments will be at Coringa, near Christchurch, from April 3-9 and the women's national matchplay will be at Taupo from December 4-8.

Timaru will stage the men's interprovincial from November 21-25. The women's event will be at Russley, Christchurch, from October 3-9.

The Auckland Golf Club will host the Europe v Asia Pacific men's team's event for the Michael Bonallack Trophy from April 26-28.