Held across the Labour long weekend, the New Zealand Golf Mixed Foursomes Salver is returning to Northland again after Kylie and Nathan Jacoby won their third title, defending their victory from 2019.
Held at New Zealand’s Golf Club of the Year, Waitemata Golf Club, Team Jacoby won the round-robin event in Division one, Julie Gillespie and Bryan Tohill (North Shore) won Division two, the 3rd division was won by Mark and Sue Irving from New Plymouth while Don Senior and Alison Waugh (Pupuke) won the 4th division.
The Jacoby’s opponents in the first round were Hayden McCallum and Tracey Salthouse, local Waitemata members and McCallum is the club’s General Manager.
Despite being out-ranked on paper, McCallum and Salthouse put up a gutsy fight with the match see-sawing for the initial 14 holes.
A costly error on the closing holes gave the Jacoby’s a look in, they eventually sealed the match 2 and 1.
Nathan Jacoby later applauded the locals for their honesty in confirming that they had accidentally moved their ball when the rules did not allow.
Brigit Holford paired with Simon Joyce, both Royal Auckland & Grange members, seeded 4th were highly rated and did take the Jacoby’s to the 18th but lost one down.
Holford is an Auckland representative of many years standing both at an Interprovincial and Masters level.
The final match in the 8-pair draw for Team Jacoby was against fellow Northland golfers, Alayna Cox and Gavin Ashwell (Wellsford).
Cox, a teammate of Jacoby’s in the Northland Women’s Interprovincial and master’s team, and Ashwell, just didn’t complement in this crucial match, with the final going to the Jacoby’s 8 and 7, their easiest win of the weekend.
Earlier on Cox and Ashwell had beaten Annelize and Pieter Vosloo (Whitford Park) 8 and 7 but then needed an extra hole to take out Harbour’s Vaha Fapiano paired with Willie Cornett (North Shore) winning on the 19th.
Other winners included Julie Gillespie and Bryan Tohill (North Shore), winning against Rita & Eric Engelbrecht (Wainui) 2 and 1 in Division Two.
The third division was won by Mark and Sue Irving from New Plymouth. The Irving’s had a comfortable win over Andrew Johnston (Pirongia) and Andrea Vale (Rotorua), 4 and 2.
Don Senior and Alison Waugh (Pupuke) needed an extra hole to secure their win in the 4th division, beating Keith Callum (Waitemata) and Trish Young (Pakuranga) on the 19th.
The 2021 venue was announced as the Bay of Islands Kerikeri Golf Club for Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 October 2021.
With home crowd support it would be a handy bet to back the Jacoby’s again next year or a momentous effort will be needed by someone to take that Salver off them.
