DAY 1 REPORT:
includes report from NZ Golf
New Zealand will take a commanding lead into tomorrow’s final day of the Trans Tasman Seniors golf international against Australia in Christchurch. The Kiwi combination lead 8½ matches to 3½ after two rounds of foursomes and fourball play at Clearwater Resort.
New Zealand made a powerful start when they dominated the morning foursomes, winning 4½ to 1½.
The Aussies started well with Brian Sams & Ross Percy coming from 4 down after 5 holes to win the last four holes of the day in a 2 up victory over Owen Kendall and Barry Shannon.
In the second match Kiwi John Sanders drained a 24 metre monster birdie putt on the 18th hole to grab a 1-up victory with partner Ron Olivecrona over an unlucky John Beaumont and Grahame MacDonald. One point all but that was as close as the Australians were to get.
Match 3 saw the Wellington pair of Rodney Barltrop and Frank Borren halve their match with the New South Wales combination of Stefan Albinski and Greg Corben. The Aussies had led early but three puts on 16 and 17 allowed the Kiwis to share a valuable point.
The NZ pairing of Ian Donaldson and Eric Brodie was too strong for Ian Read and Bill Banks and eventually ran out comfortable winners. Other comfortable winners were Arthur Parkin and Andrew McKechnie who finished under par in defeating Chris Coats & Denis Dale. Under par in foursomes is a great effort and will always be hard to beat.
Kiwi " big guns" Phil Mosley and Murray Martin played very solid golf all day and at the end were a little too good for Tony Gover and Chris Tatt winning at the second last hole.
New Zealand, who won the Sanctuary Cove Cup across the Tasman last year, then rammed home their advantage with a 4-2 advantage in the afternoon fourball. A back-to-back victory looked likely for the Kiwis.
Barltrop, teaming with Sanders, started in hot form when he holed a 3-iron on the first hole for an eagle, and the pair followed with three birdies in the next four holes on their way to a 2 and 1 win over Grahame MacDonald and John Beaumont who battled back well but could not recover from the early eagle-birdie barrage.
Mosley and Brodie were also in devastating form with eight birdies between them in winning 6 and 4 over the Australian pair of Tony Gover and Chris Tatt. Another New Zealand win went to Arthur Parkin and Murray who also birdied when they needed to in their 2 & 1 victory over Chris Coats and Denis Dale.
Ian Donaldson and Andrew McKechnie won the last hole for a 1-up victory in a very close match against Bill Banks and Ian Read. The tight matches were going the way of the Kiwis and points were very hard to find for the Aussie team.
Morning winners Ross Percy and Brian Sams came from behind again to birdie three holes on the back nine to claim victory over Frank Borron and Owen Kendall. Stefan Albinski and Greg Corben were too strong for the Kiwi pair of Ron Olivecrona and Frank Borren recording a 4 and 3 victory.
The contest will be decided with 12 singles matches, made in a special draw by Sir Bob Charles, with Australia requiring eight wins to take the cup back across the Tasman.
DAY 2 REPORT:
Day 2 began with the Australian team knowing that they needed to play at their very best to have any chance against this very strong New Zealand team. Winning 9 individual matches out of 12 was a big challenge! Denis Dale won the toss for the honour and led the Aussies off in his match against Barry Shannon.
Shannon birdied early to lead one up but Dale had squared by the ninth. Then Shannon's putter went white hot - 20 feet at 10, chip in at 12, 30 footer at 13, another from off the green on 15, a three metre putt on 16 and another 20 footer on 17. A great display and the all important first point was the Kiwis!
Ross Percy had come from behind in both team matches the previous day and when 2 down with a few to go he would need to do it again. This did not worry Percy and he did just that. He defeated Frank Borron at the last hole. One point for each team but the Aussies needed a lot more.
Greg Corben and Eric Brodie were engaged in a great tussle and approached the seventeenth all square. Brodie holed a very nice putt for a birdie and then parred the difficult eighteenth for a one up victory in a high quality match.
Chris Tatt lost two holes early to Ron Olivecrona and then squared every hole all the way to the seventeenth where the Kiwis claimed victory 2 and 1. This was the first Trans Tasman for the very classy Tatt and he will be needed again when next we battle it out with the Kiwis. The Aussies had needed to win all these early games but had narrowly failed.
John Beaumont also had a very close match then went to the final hole. As has happened far too often over the last two years it was the New Zealander who finished on top in a close match and Ian Donaldson achieved a tough 2 up victory.
Brian Sams trailed John Sanders early but with consistent driving and fine iron play narrowed the gap and with a great birdie on seventeen claimed a 2 and 1 victory (Sams birdied this hole every day). Sams and Ross Percy had won every match they played - a great effort in a losing team.
Chris Coats played well tee-to-green but could not find the hole with his putter. A 3 and 2 victory for Andrew McKechnie and the New Zealand team were already celebrating their win.
Stefan Albinski came from behind to hit the lead with two holes to go but when he overshot seventeen, had a penalty for a moving ball then followed with a bogey on the difficult eighteenth Owen Kendall reclaimed the lead and took a very good victory on the final hole.
Australian Tony Gover played some excellent golf and led most of the day against classy Kiwi Arthur Parkin but a strong finish from Parkin with a few nice putts when he needed them saw the match end all square. Half a pint for the Aussies and we didn't have many more.
Bill Banks was up against long hitting New Zealander Murray Martin and on a heavy track it was going to be a real struggle. With good golf from both players there was never much in their battle but at the second last hole it was Martin who ran out the winner - 2 and 1.
Experienced New Zealander Rodney Barltrop was up against Grahame MacDonald in almost a return match from the 2009 Australian Senior Amateur Championship when Barltrop was the winner and MacDonald the runner up. This time the result was again in Barltrop's favour with a convincing 3 and 2 victory.
The final match saw the long hitting Phil Mosley up against Ian read from Australia. Mosley's power from the rough and advantage from the tee was very evident and he also ran out a comfortable winner 5 and 4.
The Aussie shad tried hard but the end result was a very dominant win for the home team. Overall there were 17 matches over the two days that went to the 17th and 18th holes. The Kiwis showed they were a stronger team in a close finish by claiming 12 of these tight matches. A great win and one that has dented the pride of the Aussie team. There e have been four Trans Tasman Senior Championships and the scores is now two each - it will be very interesting when the next match is played at Sanctuary Cove Golf Club in id 2011.
The event was played at the Clearwater Resort, Christchurch, New Zealand on 15-16 February, 2010 and consists of foursomes, fourball and singles match play in a format similar to the Ryder and President's Cups. Australia won the first two Trans Tasman events in 2007 and 2008 with New Zealand winning in 2009.
Australian team shown below.
