By JULIE ASH
The Australian women's golf team now have New Zealand in their sights after dismissing Great Britain 4-2 on the second day of the Commonwealth tournament in Auckland yesterday.
Australia, who are chasing their third consecutive Commonwealth title, square off with New Zealand today at the Remuera Golf Club.
The
winners will not only gain valuable competition points but also the tag as tournament favourites.
Australian Sarah Kemp expects a tough match from a young but talented New Zealand team.
While New Zealand had the bye yesterday, the defending champions had to pull out all stops to beat a determined British side.
Australia won both foursome matches. Anna Parsons and Sarah-Jane Kenyon beat Anna Highgate and Kate Phillips 2 and 1 and Sarah Kemp and Misun Cho beat Anne Laing and Shelley McKevitt by the same score.
The singles matches were closer.
Britain scored their first win when their No 4, Phillips, toppled Parsons.
The Australian had the edge in the early stages but Phillips fought back to hold a one-shot lead from the 13th-17th holes before extending it to two on the 18th.
Lynn Kenny (Britain) proved no match for 16-year-old Cho, who won convincingly 7 and 5.
Australian No 2 Kenyon lost to McKevitt one down.
McKevitt led all the way but was never able to get more than two ahead of the Australian.
Kemp trailed Laing in the early stages but got back to all square on the 11th.
Kemp led by one at the next and later won the 12th before extending her lead to two on the 16th and three at the 17th to win 3 and 1.
"Going into the tournament I thought Great Britain and New Zealand would be the strongest teams that we would have to beat," said Kemp.
"So it is good to be going into our match against New Zealand following a good win over Great Britain."
Kemp was thankful that fantastic weather yesterday had succeeded Monday's appalling conditions.
"Hopefully we might be able to wear shorts or something."
In yesterday's other match Canada beat South Africa 4-2.
Today, from 8am, New Zealand meet Australia and Great Britain play against South Africa. Canada have the bye.
