Templeton, Clearwater, Russley, and Waitikiri will contest the semi-finals of the 2022 Woodward Cup after the final two rounds were played at Templeton Golf Club yesterday.
Round 8
In the morning the feature match was Pegasus v Clearwater. Pegasus had NZ rep Kazuma Kobori back in the team and he duly obliged with a 4/3 win over Canterbury team-mate Dominic Brettkelly. Phil Stephens and James Cadenhead also won for Pegasus while Shaun Allan halved with Archie Gothard, and Marcus Mariu halved with Leon Yee. For Clearwater Sam McGill remained unbeaten with a 1up win over Dean Harvey, and rising star Cooper Moore had a notable win over NZ Seniors Rep Peter Brinsdon 1up.
In an important win for Waitikiri they beat Christchurch 5.5-2.5. Notably, Chris Bond playing No. 1 for Waitikiri beat former Pro Peter Lee 1up, and adding to their win tally were Aaron Forsyth, Brett Turner, Alex Kelliher, and Antony Dale, with a half to Woo Bong Kim against Richard Reed. Only Nic Kay and Alisdair Reid could get on the win board for Christchurch.
Templeton continued their winning way with a 5.5-2.5 win over Avondale. Notably, David Zohrab also kept his Stan Rich Salver hopes alive with a 3/2 win over Mac Mitchell. Harewood beat Weedons 5-3 with wins to Josh Smith, Scott Manyweathers, James Howard, Kerry Branson, and Harry Weeds. And Russley beat Bottle Lake 7-1 with only Aaron Neill for Bottle Lake able to secure a win.
Round 9
With a semi-final berth on the line Waitikri and Pegasus faced off resulting in a 5-3 win to Waitikiri, who ended up placing fourth on the table and Pegasus fifth. Pegasus won the top two games with Kazuma Kobori and Dean Harvey, but could add only one more to James Cadenhead. Three current Canterbury Masters players all stood up for Waitikiri with Aaron Forsyth, Brett Turner, and Woo Bong Kim winning, along with young Alex Kelliher, and Antony Dale. Pegasus, last years finalists, will be wondering where it all went wrong after a strong start to the competition.
Templeton finished top-of-the-table with a strong win over Russley 5.5-2.5. David Zohrab grabbed a share of the Stan Rich Salver winning 5/4 over Taylor Hosking, to go with wins to Nick Franzmann, Jordon Latter, and Tom Wilson, with halves to Dan Laughton against Jake Roberts, Tim Leonard against Yuki Miya, and Ryan Belllamy against Michael McAuley. For Russley only Reid Hilton won. However they did enough to get into the semis placing third.
Clearwater claimed second spot on the table beating Avondale 6.5-1.5. Sam McGill took his share of the Stan Rich Salver with a win over Canterbury Age-Group rep Tim Graham 5/4, to go with wins to Dom Brettkelly, Archie Gothard, Ryan Adams, Cooper Moore, and Seb May, with a half to Will Bastings against Nick Brennan. For Avondale Sam Purdon got the sole win.
Bottle Lake had a good win over Harewood 5-3 to ensure they kept themselves out of the relagation match, and unfortunately Weedons went down to Christchurch 3-5 and they will contest the Promotion/Relegation Match against the top team in Blank Cup (that doesn't have a team in Woodward Cup).
Finals Day is at Harewood on 20 November with Templeton playing Waitikiri, and Clearwater playing Russley.
Click here for Individual Results and Final Team Standings
