The Youth Pennants team played Howick at Pakuranga on Sunday morning.  This promised to be a very tight contest as Howick led our section going into this round.  Manaaki McColl and Chris de Bruyn set off from the 10th at 8am in cold and calm conditions.  Manaaki was quickly in trouble, losing the first 3 holes.  Fortunately Chris started much better and opened up a 2 hole lead early.  Behind them Jason Wei continued to struggle to find his best form while Rakesh Patel opened up an early lead.  Tom Ritchie and Mathew Weir were similarly struggling to get their game going early on and lost early holes in their matches.

 

By the end of the first nine Manaaki had fought back well and won the final hole to get a 1up lead, while Chris continued to hold a 2up lead.  Jason was still struggling and his win at the final hole on the first nine was his first victory and he was back to 2down.  Rakesh was holding a narrow lead against his opponent so the first 4 players were showing a 3-1 lead.  Tom was battling against an opponent in great form on the greens and was still 2 down at the turn, while Mathew had gotten his match back to 1down.  Overall 3-3 after nine holes.

 

Manaaki and Chris strung some good holes together and both finished their matches early - Manaaki winning 6/4 and Chris winning 4/3.  Jason unfortunately was still struggling and his match was also over early but a 4/3 loss.  Rakesh held a 2up lead with 6 holes to play, but his opponent put the pressure on and the match was all square with 3 to play.  2 halved holes and both on the final green for 3 meant it all came down to the putting.  Rakesh's putt just missed from 5m, and his opponent holed an excellent putt from a similar distance to win the match 1up.

 

Four matches finished and 2-2.  Back on the penultimate green and Tom had lost his match 3/1, while Mathew and Logan Boersma were all square.  They both played the final hole very solidly - Mathew right of the hole and 6m away; Logan just off the green to the right and a similar distance away.  Both 2putted for regulation pars and a half.

 

So overall a 2.5-3.5 loss and we now need to rely on some results going our way next Sunday at Aviation to make the semi-finals.

 

Royal Auckland beat Manukau 3.5 - 2.5

Pakuranga beat Aviation 6 - 0.

 

Points with 1 round to go:

Howick               23.5

Royal Auckland   21.5

Manukau            19.5

Remuera            18

Pakuranga         12

Aviation               2

 

Final round matches at Aviation:

REMUERA vs Aviation

Manukau vs Howick

Royal Auckland vs Pakuranga

 

Our simple task - beat Aviation 6-0 so that we get 8 points and hope that the other results produce close results!!  Not much to ask, is it?

 

Player of the day - Manaaki McColl who shot a very good 73 and won his first pennant match.  Well done, Manaaki.