Sloan team finishes fourth

Our Sloan Trophy team finished an otherwise excellent season in fourth place after a deflating draw with Murchison at Nelson on Sunday (August 2).

However, the day belonged to Takaka who were made to work hard by Greenacres before claiming the title from defending champions Golden Downs by just three points. 

On a perfect winter's day for golf, we needed a clean sweep and our three rivals to get beaten to have any chance, but that unlikely scenario soon evaporated.

Murchison provided stiff resistance and in the end we needed a win from our captain James Campion just to share the points.

We started well with both our juniors winning their matches. Andrew Craig - who hit it straight all day in posting a net 70 - looked dead and almost buried at four down with six to play but mounted a spectacular comeback to win his last six holes to triumph 2-up. 

Despite giving his opponent four shots, Graham Eggers was three up after nine before cruising to a 5/4 victory. He missed only two fairways in a solid performance.

Matt Tomczyk played to his handicap but got beaten 4/2 by a rival whose round included three birdies. Three down at the turn, Matt drove and putted well but couldn't make any headway against some inspired play.

His fellow intermediate, Keri Kotua, also went down, losing 2/1. Keri found himself four down after nine and just couldn't make up enough ground to take it to the wire. While his driving and chipping were okay, he missed too many short putts while his opponent shone on the greens.

Pete Green was three up after his front nine but faded over his last six holes to slip to a 1-down loss against an opponent who started with a three-shot advantage and played well down the closing stretch.

While Pete was locked in a tense struggle, our No 1 James was coasting to a 5/4 victory on the back of some excellent bunker play and putting. Twice he got up and down from the sand for par and then holed one for birdie. Combined with some impressive drives, James was never headed after being three up at the turn in carding a net 71.

In other matches, Golden Downs - who were bidding for four titles on the trot - caned Totaradale 8-1 but it wasn't enough as Takaka squeaked home against bottom-placed Greenacres 6.5-2.5. 

Motueka secured third with a comfortable 7-2 win over Tasman.

So after one of the closest fought seasons for some years which we led for much of it, Takaka take out the championship with 53 points from Golden Downs (50), Motueka (47) and Waahi Taakaro (44.5). They are followed by Nelson (30), Totaradale and Murchison (28 each), Tasman (26) and Greenacres (17.5).