Good win for the Sloan team

Our Sloan team is up into fourth place after coasting to a comfortable win over Murchison in the second round of the Sloan Trophy played at Golden Downs in hot conditions on Sunday (March 1).

Lewis Wilson got the ball rolling early by winning his first two holes and shooting a nett 70 to cruise to a 5/4 win. 

His fellow junior, Aaron Kotua, had to fight much harder, but with his driver working well he lead by three at the turn and eventually ground out a result by winning his last hole for a 2-up victory.

Dave Blake marked his debut as an intermediate with a gutsy performance. Down three early after a nervous start he clawed his way back in the game to lead by two with three to play. However, his opponent won the next two so they went to the last all square. After his Murchison rival sunk a 20 foot putt for a par, Dave was faced with a tricky 5 footer for a half which he coolly slotted.

Our other intermediate, Jonathan Tuheke, came up against an opponent who shot a 79 off the stick and was just too wayward to stay in the match, going down 6/5.

After a slow start No 2 Keri Kotua edged ahead to lead one-up after the front nine. He then won three quickly with some steady golf to strangle his rival 4/3.

In a scrappy affair No 1 Peter Watson  went to the turn one-up despite struggling to read the greens - as did many others, which was not helped by some difficult pin placements. He birdied the 10th and then won the 12th and 13th before halving the 14th in bogies to close out his match 4/3. 

The 7 1/2 to 1 1/2  win propelled Waahi Taakaro into fourth place - just three and half points off the lead - on a day of upsets.

Takaka trounced Nelson 7-2, Greenacres easily accounted for Tasman by the same score and Totaradale (with a team containing three former Waahi Taakaro players, Rob Willems, Elton Netto and Tui Samau) floored Motueka 6 1/2 to 2 1/2.

The points table after two rounds sees Totaradale on 13 1/2, Greenacres and Takaka 11, Waahi Taakaro 10, Motueka 9, Nelson 8 1/2, Tasman 4, Golden Downs 2 1/2 and Murchison 1 1/2.

The next round is at Waahi Taakaro on April 5.

ends