After a gruelling week of battle featuring the countrys best amateur golfers, Wellington, Waikato, Otago and North Harbour have made the semi-finals at the 2016 Toro Interprovincial hosted by New Plymouth Golf Club.
Tomorrow will see two thrilling semi-finals with Wellington playing North Harbour and Waikato facing off against Otago in a rematch of the last two Interprovincial finals.
It was a day packed of drama with North Harbours fate decided on the final putt of the afternoon as Bay of Plenty sadly bailed out of contention after a great week, illustrating why this format of the game is so tough. However, the dominance of heavyweights Waikato and Wellington featured when it counted on the penultimate day.
Wellingtons Jono Cane was the player of the day after recording two dominant 6&4 victories to anchor the side into the final four. He was supported by his number one Daniel Hillier who also made light work of his crucial match this afternoon winning 5/4 to retain an unbeaten record at number one.
Cane who is a three-time champion at the Toro Interprovincials is pleased with where his game is at, along with his teams progress.
"Its nice to contribute as the boys are starting to come together well before the big day tomorrow," beamed Cane.
"I feel we have grown so much from last year and gained that extra bit of experience which is massive in this form of the game."
Cane hasnt won the title since 2001 at this very venue, so to get over the line would be extremely satisfying.
"To me personally it means the world, I have won three of these things now and its been a while since. Its a feeling you cant reproduce in any other form of the game, we have eleven other people here as a team, so hopefully we can do it for everyone tomorrow."
Holding strong in Wellingtons number five position is unsung hero Kerry Mountcastle who is yet to lose a match this week with five wins and one halve showing the importance of a full team effort.
Waikato were once again clinical today and will ride the wave of the favourites tag into the final day tomorrow. Luke Toomey and Nick Coxon have been dominant all week and remain the undefeated backbone of this extremely successful Waikato Golf era.
Chris Charlton has replicated his 2015 form and has only lost one match at number five which has been a simple recipe for victory throughout the week.
They are odds on favourites to wrestle past Otago tomorrow and take history into their own hands in search of the three-peat.
Otago will look for revenge once again against Waikato as their finals rivalry continues. In the past two Interprovincials Waikato have broken their hearts in the final which will be a heavy monkey they would love to get off their back.
Otago demonstrated why they have made so many finals today after bouncing back from an early loss to Wellington to beat Northland in the dying moments and claim a spot in the top four. It was a stressful week for the southerners with two draws adding pressure, but once again they now have a chance for glory tomorrow.
North Harbour were in the dugout early after a dominant win in the Battle of the Bridge with Auckland and could only wait and watch as Waikato did enough against Bay of Plenty to keep their hopes alive and progress to the semi-finals.
Led by number one Jason Gulasekharam, the young side went quietly about their business all week and will have the chance to win for the first time since 2005 at Titirangi Golf Club.
Bay of Plenty and Canterbury will go home with heartbreak after they fell agonisingly close to the semi-finals. Bay of Plenty lost to North Harbour earlier in the week which has proved to be the decider, whilst Canterbury couldnt continue their golden run with a poor final day losing to Northland and Wellington.
Poverty Bay East Coast made some of their own history today by winning their second match of the week against Aorangi this afternoon. It has been a very long time since they have achieved this and today they showed why all the districts mean so much to this tournament with the pure joy and passion for the jersey.
If form is any indication of what is to come, you can expect a mouth-watering match-up between the two unbeaten sides of Waikato and Wellington. This would produce a colossal match of Toomey versus Hillier would arguably rival that of Parker and Ruiz.
The semi-finals will commence at 7:30am with the final starting approximately 12:30.
- This story has been automatically published using a media release from Golf NZ
The final four confirmed at Toro Interprovincials
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