Russley's Hiroki Miya and Juliana Hung sucessfully defended their Canterbury Matchplay titles playing a consistently high standard of golf for the three days of the championship. Harewood's Blair Dibley joined them when he defended the Men's Masters title also.
Both players were just too consistent and outlasted their opponents, making few mistakes on a tough windswept Harewood layout. They next head to the NZ Amateur on their home course - Russley. In the men's final Cadenhead was unsettled early and missed crucial putts to give Miya the lead. Midway through the back nine he cut Miya's lead to two but ran out of holes on the 16th when Miya made birdie to win. Hung had a real battle on her hands to subdue Fuuka Higashi who is visitng from Japan. It took an eight footer for birdie on the 18th hole to finally get the win.
In the Men's Master's Blair Dibley went down early to Jeremy Goodman but steadily got back into the match and through the back nine built a healthy lead to win 5/4. Di Kay and Debbie Scott had a close battle and were all square until midway through the back nine where Kay ekked out a 2up lead and won 2/1 on the 17th. Austin Hamilton did well to come through and win Men's Div 2. He was always in control of his match over Steven Yang.
Click on the PDF (above right) to see the full results.
A huge thanks must go to Harewood Golf Club and the Golf Warehouse - both important partners in the tournament. Thanks also to the Canterbury Golf Referees Association and Canterbury Golf volunteers.
