This year’s final hurdle was Josh Hayes and Steve Phillips, and it took all 18 holes for the champions to be decided.
Henwood, off a 2-handicap, was giving the shots and he and Christophers had to overcome an early deficit as Hayes won the first two holes.
A Christophers birdie on the fourth reduced it to 1-down.
Henwood birdied the ninth and stroke 1 10th to put them in front, and Christophers’ par on the 12th was good enough for the win and a 2-up lead.
Phillips bogeyed the par-5 13th with a shot to win it and won 15 to even things up again.
The 17th was to prove clutch. Henwood was, in his own words, “in the crap”, but Christophers played an excellent second into the green and two-putted for par to put them 1-up with one to go.
Phillips had a chance to force extra holes but his putt for birdie on 18 missed.
Henwood became the first player to win the Te K and BG cups in the same year and appreciated the history that goes with the Te Kanawa Cup, which dates back to the former Turanganui Golf Club, where Harry Barker Reserve now stands.
Christophers summed up Henwood’s cup double in one word … “legend”.
For Hayes, it was the second time he has had to settle for runner-up in a competition he described as “my jam”, although he did say this year “exceeded expectations”.
Hayes and Peter Stewart lost the 2021 final to Henwood and Christophers. Stewart (partnered with Kelly Spring) was also runner-up to Henwood and Christophers in the previous week’s BG Cup final.
In Te K Cup subsidiary finals, Derek Craven and Glen McKinnon beat lone soldier Mat Downie (partner Mike Christophers was away) 4 and 3 to win the Turanganui Cup, and Bailey Matoe and Chris Fox defeated Dave Harrison and Phil Nepia also on the 15th to win the Fletcher Cup.
Meanwhile, a Hayes did get their hands on another piece of pairs silverware. Josh’s sister Emma Hayes and his fiancee Holly Miller beat Kino White and Tai Aramakutu in the final of the Benson Cup women’s pairs.
Soon-to-be sisters-in-law Holly Miller (left) and Emma Hayes won the Benson Cup women’s pairs at Electrinet Park Golf Club last weekend.
Pātutahi
The quest to find the club’s best men’s combo in 2026 is down to the last two.
Cousins Tom and Ash Hindmarsh will duke it out with John Tietjen and Mason Smith in the handicap matchplay final of the men’s four-ball, best-ball competition.
Club president Tony Green said there wasn’t a trophy as such for this title and it had been called different names over its history.
But it remains a sought-after crown and the 2026 champs will be decided on August 2, the same day as the first qualifying round for the club championships.
The Hindmarsh boys needed an extra hole to see off Eddie Brown Jnr and son Watene in the semi-finals, while Tietjen and Smith defeated Madison Murphy and Zach Norris.
SUNDAY – Division 1 Stableford: D. Wilson 40, S. Toa 38, A. Hindmarsh 37, D. Williams 36, W. Brown 33.
Division 2 Stableford: A. Zame 38, G. Hawea 36, M. Murphy 36, P. Summersby 34, J. Blair 34.
Twos: M. De Luze, D. Pohatu.
FRIDAY – Meat pack 9-hole Stableford, Division 1: D. Williams 22, Sel Pohatu 20, G. Brown 18, S. Toa 17, D. Pohatu 17.
Division 2: G. Maude 20, N. Short 20, R. Evans 20, J. Tietjen 20, P. Briant 20.
Tolaga Bay
Murray Yates is going to be one of the busiest club members on the biggest weekend of the year for Tolaga Bay Golf Club.
The course will be full and the 19th will be buzzing for the annual King of the Coast men’s open on Saturday and Sunday and at the heart of it will be Yates and his loyal crew of helpers.
But going on last weekend, it won’t be just behind the scenes where “Muzza” will be making his mark.
Yates signalled he could be one of the men to beat in his matchplay division with a winning performance in the medal competition on Sunday.
His 79-15-64, one stroke ahead of Pete Stevenson, included a birdie-2, and followed on from some warm scoring in the club competition the previous weekend.
Heading into the KotC, the locals have clearly announced their intentions.
SUNDAY – Medal: M. Yates 64, P. Stevenson 65, B. Yates 68.
Putting: D. Collier 26.
Approach: T. Higgs.
SUNDAY (July 12) – Medal: G. McLean 64, J. Sheridan 66, M. Watts 67, T. Adamson 67.
Twos: T. Adamson, M. Watts, T. Higgs.
Putting: M. Watts 26, G. McLean 26.
Approach: W. Yates.
In 2011, Ryan Fox was No. 1 for Auckland at the national interprovincial men’s tournament held at Poverty Bay Golf Club. He returned next year as a rookie pro. Fox made an instant impression at the interprovincial. He played Poverty Bay-East Coast teenager William Brown and beat him 6 and 5 in a 5-0 whitewash by the Aucklanders. His 5-iron second shot over the trees on the par-5 12th and on to the green to 8m from the pin, resulting in an eagle-3, is still talked about. The next year he returned for the Poverty Bay Pro-Am and was one of three players who carded a championship course record 7-under 65. The others were Richard Lee and Troy Ropiha, Lee going on to win the three-man sudden-death playoff. At that Pro-Am, a long-driving contest was held. Fox led it until Wairoa giant Baden Waiwai stepped up and smashed a drive 307m. Fourteen years later, Fox became the first right-handed Kiwi to win the Open Championship. There are many who are not surprised. Photo from the 2011 national interprovincial by Paul Rickard
Poverty Bay
Walk the walk. Talk the talk.
Anaru Reedy did both as a player and teacher last weekend.
Reedy, NZ Golf’s participation and club support co-ordinator for Tairāwhiti, went for a hit on Saturday and ended up leading Division 1 after the first round of the Dodgshun Cup men’s gross series.
He made the championship course look a lot easier than it played on the way to a 1-under 71-1-70, which included the jackpot of two twos.
The next day Reedy was on the practice fairway running the local version of She Loves Golf – what has been a hugely successful programme for females.
Reedy, if he plays in the rest of the Dodgshun Cup series, has a six-stroke lead over Simon Jeune (77). Players count their best three scores from the four rounds.
Alex Kirkpatrick and Tene Goldsmith lead Division 2 after matching 82s while Duncan Bush’s 98 set the pace in Division 3.
Professional Tyler Hodge turned the practice he has been doing at Poverty Bay to one of the lowest rounds in the course’s history last Thursday.
Left-handed Hodge shot 8-under 64 off the white tees, joining a select group of players to have achieved the feat.
Hodge started with two pars, then opened the aviary door.
He made birdies on the third to fifth holes, then the seventh to ninth to go out in 6-under 30.
Another birdie on the 10th was followed by a bogey 4 on the 11th – that’s a bogey for no Stableford points as he plays off a +6 handicap and the 11th is the No. 13 stroke hole.
He birdied the 12th and the 14th to go 8-under, then finished with four consecutive pars.
Adopted local Hodge, who won the 2025 New Zealand PGA, recently married top Gisborne golfer and Hawke’s Bay-Poverty Bay representative Tessa McDonald.
The last time Ray Brott had broken 90 heading into his round last Friday was the same year the Berlin Wall came down, the World Wide Web was invented, Lisa Carrington was born, and Don’t Worry, Be Happy by Bobby McFerrin won Song of the Year at the Grammy Awards.
Thirty-seven years after those 1989 occurrences, Brott was very happy as he shot 89-25-64 to win the Friday Crew’s weekly stableford with a 44-point haul.
It was back to reality two days later … 101.
TUESDAY – Veteran’s Stableford: B. Rothschild 40, D. Atkins 38, L. Owen 38, B. Morrissey 38, P. Clayton 38, C. Poole 37, T. Goldsmith 37, D. Buillivant 37.
SUNDAY – Men’s Stableford, Division 1: A. White 39, A. Hayward 35, D. Pirimona 35.
Division 2: G. Clapham 41, P. Rickard 39, J. Finch 39, K. Travers 37.
Twos: J. Finch, M. Harris, M. Norman.
Nearest to pin: S. Hihi.
SATURDAY – Dodgshun Cup men’s gross (best three of four rounds), Round 1, Division 1: A. Reedy 71, S. Jeune 77, P. Butler 82.
Division 2: A. Kirpatrick 82, T. Goldsmith 82, V. Richardson 83 on c/b.
Division 3: D. Bush 98, C. Morton 99, W. Edginton 101.
Twos: A. Reedy 2, P. Butler, D. Sharp, J. Jenner.
Nearest to pin: A. Reedy.
Jackpot: A. Reedy.
THURSDAY (July 16) – Men’s Stableford, Division 1: A. Kirkpatrick 38, V. Richardson 37, P. Clayton 36, N. Mackie 34.
Division 2: K. Goldsmith 39, K. Marshall 36, A. Carrie 36, A. Abrahams 34.
Twos: S. Jeune, M. Higham.
Nearest to pin: S. Jeune.
WEDNESDAY (July 15) – Womens’s 27-hole silver and bronze tournament, AB&J Cup silver gross: R. Taewa 137
Silver net: M. Colebourne 113.
Silver Stableford: G. Young 51.
Meg Harpr Rosebowl bronze gross: M. Allan 142.
Bronze net: J. Muir 113.
Bronze Stableford: P. Dymock 52.
Twos: J. McCafferty, T. Lewis.
Te Puia Hot Springs
It was mano a mano at the Springs on Sunday for the first round of the Makarika Cup men’s matchplay.
Winners were Roly Smith, Dick Cook, James Forrester, Peter Harrison and James Junior Forrester, who also won the Stableford with 35 points.
SUNDAY – Makarika Cup men’s matchplay, Round 1: R. Smith def K. Waitoa, D. Cook def B. Clark, James Forrester def D. Goldsmith, P. Harrison def M. Higham, James Junior Forrester def B. McLeod.
Stableford: James Junior Forrester 35, M. Aurupa 35, P. Harrison 34.
Twos: B. McLeod., K. Waitoa.