Golf: Tait's first day swings from joy to misery

By BOB PEARCE

Northland golfer Alex Tait experienced highs and lows on the first day of the inter-provincial tournament at Christchurch yesterday.

The former New Zealand cricketer, playing No 1 for his province, beat national representative Bradley Iles 5 and 4 in the morning, finishing the match four under the card at the Coringa course.

In the afternoon he lost 9 and 7 to Brent McEwan, of Otago, and headed for the practice range while his team-mates were still battling to a 4-1 loss.

Although Northland lost to Wellington, Tait was elated about his win against Iles, just back from South Africa and victory in the Southern Cross Cup.

But he was brought down to earth in the afternoon.

"I had a shocker. He played pretty well, but if he had a bogey, I had a double-bogey," said Tait.

In fact McEwan played the first half in 35, one under par, while Tait required 44. The Otago player won the par-five 14th with a double to a triple bogey.

Otago finished the day in second place after wins over Northland and Canterbury, with seven individual matches won.

Leading are Tasman and Wellington, with two wins and seven and a half individual matches won.

But favourites Waikato and Bay of Plenty played only one round - Waikato accounting for Poverty Bay 5-0 and defending champions Bay of Plenty beating Aorangi 3-2 after trailing in the early stages.

Auckland also played only in the morning and needed a good putt on the last green by Travis O'Connell to halve his match with Grant Hall and secure a half with Hawkes Bay.

Ross Valentine and Richard Hislop won well, but Kevin Chun had an off day and No 1 Logan Holzer fell to New Zealand representative Richard Squire on the last green.

North Harbour, with players largely inexperienced at this level, were beaten 3 - 1 by Manawatu-Wanganui, Ryan Leslie sinking a good putt on the last to win on his 21st birthday.

The surprise was Otago's first victory over Canterbury in this tournament for six years. It came down to a missed putt on the last by David Rattray, which allowed Bruce Grant to win 1 up.

Bay of Plenty trailed Aorangi early in their encounter, but Jason McIntosh and Terry Hong were never in trouble and Jae An recovered from losing his first tee shot in a tree. George Kinghorn was well beaten by Chris Dickens and NZ representative Mark Smith fell to Daniel Perham one down.

Waikato this morning play Auckland in a test of their status as favourites on the 6497m course.