On course for more history

HISTORY has a habit of being made when Poverty Bay Golf Club hosts the national interprovincial men’s tournament.
In 1957, the title headed to the South Island for the first time, courtesy of a Canterbury victory.
In 1980, Poverty Bay-East Coast celebrated what is still the province’s best-ever performance — sixth out of 14 provinces.
In 1996, Tasman clinched the crown for the first, and still only, time in the province’s history.
Bob Charles led Canterbury to the 1957 title although it was arguably his loss to Hawke’s Bay’s No.1 Stuart Jones that was among the tournament highlights.
Jones defeated Charles 1-up as Canterbury shared the honours 3-all with the Bay in the last round — a result good enough to seal the South Island first.
The home team, known back then as Gisborne-East Coast, were represented by Len Roderick, Jock Corson, Roly Field, Bowser Toogood, W.W. Langlands and J.R. Mackey. They started with a 3½-2½ victory over Buller-Westland-Marlborough-Nelson but that was their only joy and they finished 11th out of 12 districts.
Corson’s three wins and a half from six matches was the best individual record for GEC.
The Auckland team of Michael Leitch, Terry Cochrane, Phil Aickin, Terry Pulman and Tony Treen powered through the 1981 tournament unbeaten to capture their third successive title.
But it was the performance of Poverty Bay-East Coast which threatened to steal the show, and emphatically answered critics who had questioned whether the minnow province deserved tournament status.
The PBEC team comprised Rouse, Mike Thomson, Murray Fisher, and teenage debutants Rowan Clark and Simon Jeune,
Their sixth placing featured team wins over Canterbury (4-1), Southland (3½-1½), Mid-South Canterbury (3½-1½) and Taranaki (3½-1½).
Fisher was the team’s star with five wins from his seven matches while Rouse had four wins and a half and Jeune two wins and three halves.
Leitch had six wins and a half for the champions but the player of the tournament honours went to the man who became known as “The Emperor”. Stuart Jones, in his 28th Freyberg and at the age of 56, had six wins from seven matches.
Tasman pulled off an unlikely victory in 1996 on a Saturday of double historic note. Not only was it the first time the province had won the Freyberg Rosebowl silverware, it was the first time two South Island teams had met in the final.
The Tasman crew of Nick Riddell, captain and player of the tournament Haydn Morgan, Kerry Fyfe, Andrew Woolley and Wayne Bowie beat Canterbury 4-1.
PBEC’s team of Simon Jeune, Vashon Karaka, Alistair Higgins, Dion Milner and Hamish Douglas defeated Aorangi 4-1 in their final round-robin tie to place 13th overall.
Higgins had come in as a replacement for New Zealand cricket great Lance Cairns after he suffered a foot injury when accidentally “sprigged” by a team-mate.
It was one of several bizarre incidents for Cairns during the tournament. His flag-tending caddie pulled the entire plastic cup inner out while Cairns was putting and his hole-bound ball hit it and rebounded away.
A Cairns drive off the 13th tee resulted in his ball finding its way into the course superintendent’s car as it was being driven by his 2IC.
Such golfing history only underlines that when so many quality players converge on the same stage, something special will inevitably happen.
Expect the 2011 edition of the national interprovincials to be no different.