Allan Smith receives award

Press, 10 November 1986, Page 23

Allan Smith receives award

The Waikato captain and No. 3, Allan Smith, was named “player of the tournament” at the end of the Government Life inter-pro-vincial golf event at Hokowhitu on Saturday afternoon.

Although Smith lost his game in the grand final to Teipf Cochrane (Auckland), Waikato retained the team’s match-play title and Smith had done much of the groundwork with six wins and a half in the seven lead-up matches.

Before his loss, Smith had been unbeaten in 23 matches. He was unbeaten in 1983, did not play in 1984, and was without a loss last year. ' oils n ..*

A runner-up award was

presented for the first time and that- Went to the Manawatu-Wanganui No. 4, Bryce Mawhinney, who was making his tournament debut. Mawhinney had seven straight wins before a determined Kerry Lake, of Canterbury, ended the sequence in the final round.

If Canterbury had won its semi-final contest against Waikato, the top award must surely have gone to the Canterbury' captain instead of the Waikato captain. John Williamson, at No. 2, was an admirable leader for Canterbury. He had seven wins and one loss (on the last green) to match Mawhinney’s record, but “the consolation award went to the lower positioned player from the home

team. After his six wins last year, Williamson gave further proof of immense value to Canterbury. Murray Brown and John Crawford-Smith can take pride in their performances, both winning six of their eight games. Lake, who was making his debut along with CrawfordSmith, was something of a mixed bag, but his notable win against Mawhinney on the final afternoon enabled him to finish with a 50 per cent record.

Mark Street in the difficult top spot, twice produced brilliant rounds, but he suffered losses, and had the disappointing return of three wins, one half and four losses.