WP have the edge over Boland after the morning foursomes

Western Province took a giant step towards edging out defending champions Boland on Thursday in early play in the South African Inter Provincial Tournament when they won the morning foursomes 3-1.

The sun shone after two days of wind and icy rain at the Hermanus Golf Club, and Western Province lost just one match when Riaan Gerber and Philip Gerber of Boland beat Justin Turner and Stephen Swanepoel 3 and 2.

That was after the Western Province duo fought back to one down after the 14th, but tough putts on the 15th and 16th made life difficult, and they lost both those holes and the game.

Ahead of them, Western Province’s Francois Olivier and Gregg Upton went onto the 18th one up on Trevor Mahoney and JJ Senekal, and won the 18th to win a match which had seemed set to be shared.

Western Province’s final pairing of Adrian Ford and Cameron Johnston made the 3-1 lead an emphatic one by tearing up the front nine and winning 6 and 5 over Jacques Blaauw and Johan du Buisson.

Gauteng North and Central Gauteng shared the foursomes 2-2 in another A section match, while Free State and Northern Cape were 3-1 up on Ekurhuleni.

KwaZulu-Natal didn’t lose a game in the morning foursomes against Mpumalanga, halving just one game when Thomas Lovett and Cobus Oosthuizen shared with Hugo Malan and Lukas Steyn of Mpumalanga.

That strengthened their chances of topping the B section, especially since Eastern Province, their nearest rivals, crashed to a 4-0 deficit in the foursomes to North West Province. They were all tight matches, reaching the 17th hole and beyond in all cases.

The other B section match saw Border lead Limpopo 2 ½ – 1 ½.

For detailed scores click here