The 2023 South Island Men’s Masters interprovincial was played over the weekend with our Cantabs taking top honours following a clinical weekend with 4 wins from 4 matches at Ashburton Golf club.
The opening round of the event which is played in a split match format saw us take on Tasman and Southland with 3 individual matches against those provinces players. It was almost the perfect start with 5 player’s recording victories with just the one half. Andrew Green playing in the No. 1 position taking a 4/2 victory over Tasman’s Ben Crawford, with James Howard (4) winning by the same margin and Jason Sincock (6) winning 4/3 over his Southland opponent.
Onto the after round and the men were able to complete the team wins over both Tasman and Southland to provide the perfect start. Woo Bong Kim narrowly winning 1up over Tasman’s Blair Bavin and Aaron Forsyth winning 4/3 over Southland’s Ewan Clark. Andrew Dufton managed a half to match his morning round outcome. The final results were a 4.5-1.5 win and 5.5-0.5 win over Tasman and Southland respectively.
With day 2 ahead Canterbury held pole position although hosts Aorangi also recorded two day 1 team wins. Round 3 saw the first of the Aorangi and Otago match up’s, with several close matches. Both Aaron Forsyth and Andrew Dufton won 1up against their Aorangi opponents while Woo Bong Kim and James Howard also recorded victories in their Otago match up’s leaving us with 2 wins from 3 in each match heading into the afternoon final round.
With only 1.5 points needed in each match, the men produced a good display recording 5 wins from 6 to comprehensively complete the task. Andrew Green winning 4/2 over Otago’s Chris Snow, Woo Bong Kim winning 5/4 and Aaron Forsyth winning 4/3 all were notable efforts. Andrew Dufton and James Howard meanwhile recorded 2up victories. The final score vs Otago was 5-1 and 4-2 vs Aorangi.
Overall Woo Bong Kim (2), Aaron Forsyth (3) and James Howard (4) all completed perfect weekends with 4 wins, combining well in the middle of the order. Andrew Dufton (5) meanwhile went through undefeated with 2 wins and 2 halves while Andrew Green also performed well with 3 wins at the top of the order. All in all a well deserved team victory as the team now looks to build and prepare for the upcoming NZ Freyberg Masters in Gisborne, with that team to be named shortly.
