Golf: Wellington shine in wet weather

Wellington's Ben Campbell. Photo / Getty Images

Defending champions Wellington are coming into their own in the Toro men's Interprovincial golf tournament at the Poverty Bay Golf Club in Gisborne.

Two of their most experienced campaigners, No1 Ben Campbell and No2 Thomas Spearman Burn, stood up in the closing stages of their pivotal match against Canterbury on a trying day of wet weather.

Campbell began the strong surge home today when he made a clutch birdie on the 17th to go one up over rival Keelan Kilpatrick and then Spearman Burn made an even better birdie putt on the final hole from 30 feet to win his match one up against Owen Burgess.

Campbell held on to win by the same margin on the last and the pair secured a pivotal point for Wellington in division one as they won 3-2 against an impressive Canterbury team.

"It was really pleasing to win that match," said Spearman Burn, who won the New Zealand Amateur title in 2008.

"It was pretty tight coming down the last few holes and to get a clutch putt on the last was an important moment on our tough side of the draw."

With two rounds to play tomorrow (Fri) to decide the final four teams to contest the semi-finalists Wellington has plenty of momentum ahead of their matches with Taranaki and Auckland.

Auckland takes their own surge of form into the deciding day after dismissing the in-form Taranaki 4 1/2-1/2.

"We are very happy," said Auckland number one Ryan Fox. "We didn't play too well earlier in the week so it was good to see all the boys step up and play well."

Auckland, who has already been upset by Northland and Canterbury, cannot afford another loss in their matches against Hawkes Bay and Wellington.

Meanwhile on the other side of the draw in division two Bay of Plenty have continued their dominant form with a 5-0 win over Otago, all but sealing their place in the semifinals.

The Bay has won four from four matches and made no mistake in the rain this morning to win again.

"We were really clinical today," said Aaron Walsh, "We saw as a bit of a road bump with the rain but we were excellent. Landyn Edwards birdied six of the last seven to win 4 and 2 and Brad Kendall was great for us today in a win that will give him a lot of confidence."

Wellington and Auckland, who are the first and second on the all-time wins in the Toro Men's Interprovincial tournament wins list with 13 and 12 wins respectively, have everything to play for tomorrow.

Division One leaderboard (individual points)

3 (12) Wellington

3 (10.5) Taranaki

3 (10) Northland

2.5 (13.5) Manawatu/Wanganui

2 (13.5) Auckland

2 (12) Canterbury

1.5 (9.5) Hawkes Bay

0 (4) Poverty Bay EC

Division Two leaderboard

4 (14.5) Bay of Plenty

3 (12.5) Southland

3 (12.5) Tasman

2 (12) Waikato

1.5 (7.5) Otago

1 (10) North Harbour

0.5 (6) Aorangi

#

2011 TORO New Zealand Men's Interprovincial

Round Five

Thursday, November 24

Wellington 3 Canterbury 2

Ben Campbell bt Keelan Kilpatrick 1up, Thomas Spearman Burn bt Owen Burgess 1up, Adam Church lost to Jordan Bakermans 2/1, Marc Jennings lost to Tom Turner 1up, Peter Brinsdon bt Mark O'Malley 3/1

Auckland 4 1/2 Taranaki 1/2

Ryan Fox bt Brad Hayward 5/4, Fraser Wilkin halved with Tim White, Sam An bt Thomas Hill 3/2, Jonathan Ratcliffe bt Zach Lewis 4/ 3, Tae Koh bt Murray Martin 4/3

Tasman 3 1/2 Waikato 1 1/2

Blair Riordan halved with Mat Perry, Hamish Campbell bt Leonard Morgan 1up, Ryan Chisnall bt Compton Pikari 4/3, Tom Dasler bt Daniel Graham 1up, Nick Ludbrook lost to Jason Boobyer 6/4

North Harbour 4 Aorangi 1

Cameron Jones lost to Tim Leonard 6/4, Kevin Budden bt Scott Fox 4/3, James Davis bt Damian Rodgers 1up, Anthony Cope bt Robbie Bell 1up, Aaron Garnett bt Sam Clemens 7/6

Hawkes Bay 2 Northland 3

Ben Swinburne lost Brad Bonnington 6/4, Sam Penrice bt Kadin Neho 3/2, Kieran Goodall lost Lee Neumann 4/3, Paul Malcolm lost Alex Neely 2/1, Justin Campbell bt Sean Masters 2/1

Man / Wang 5 Poverty Bay EC 0

Josh Munn bt Simon Jenkins 4/3, Tyler Hodge bt William Brown 8/7, Lachie McDonald bt Steven Donnelly 4/2, Rhys Watkins bt Andrew Higham 4/3, Trent Munn bt Dion Milner 7/6

Otago 0 Bay of Plenty 5

Brent McEwan lost to Brad Kendall 1up, Andrew Hobbs lost to Landyn Edwards 3/2, Tyrone Ratahi lost to James Hamilton 2up, Chris Snow lost to Sam Davis 3/1, Mitch Bosley lost to Craig Hamilton 2/1

Bye: Southland

-APNZ