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Sunday, September 9, 2018

U.S. men finish second, U.S. women dominate in World Amateur Team Championship


   The United States was once the unquestioned leader of the world in golf, winning most of the international competitions it entered, often pretty easily.
   As the rest of the world caught up and, in some cases, passed the U.S. of A. -- frontrunners that we are, occasionally sore losers that we can be -- fans and followers of the game in our country wondered what the heck was going on.
   It really wasn’t that complicated, though. The rest of the world followed one of my rules when it comes to standing up to a dynasty that keeps beating your brains in (see UConn women’s basketball for a current for-instance): Get better.
   On top of that, it is a good thing for the game that the rest of the world has embraced golf the way it has. It took a while for the LPGA Tour to figure it out, but having golf fans in Asia and Europe and South America doesn’t diminish your appeal, it widens it. Plus, followers of the men’s game in this country tend to stop watching golf when college football and the NFL get started. Followers of the game in Asia keep watching golf, in person, if possible, and on TV.
   The best amateur golfers in the world descended on Carton House Golf Club, a golf resort in Maynooth, Ireland, outside of Dublin, the last two weeks and the U.S. did pretty darn good, finishing second in the World Amateur Team Championship for the Eisenhower Trophy, which wrapped up Saturday, a week after the U.S. women dominated the World Amateur Team Championship for the Espirito Santo Trophy.
   It actually took a monumental effort by a Denmark’s 17-year-old twin brothers, Nicolai and Rasmus Hajgaard, to deny the U.S. an Eisenhower Trophy as Nicolai Hojgaard fired a 7-under-par 66 and Rasmus Hajgaard posted a 6-under 67 to give the Danes a final round of 13-under 133 and a 72-hole total of 39-under 541 that beat the United States by a single shot.
   It was Denmark’s first Eisenhower Cup win. The U.S. has won it 13 times, most recently in 2014 when the trio of Bryson DeChambeau, Beau Hossler and Denny McCarthy claimed it at the Karuizawa 72 East Golf Club in Japan.
   The two best two scores of the three-man teams are counted. The event was played on the Carton House’s Montgomerie and O’Meara Courses. It looks like the O’Meara Course,  where the final round was played, is a par 73 layout and the 72-hole total for individuals added up to 290, so there was unbalanced pars on the two courses.
   Denmark got off to a great start with some help from John Axelson, a sophomore at Florida who opened up with a sizzling 64. Combined with Rasmus Hajgaard’s 68, it gave Denmark an opening-round 132. The Danes fell back with a second-round 139 and carded a 137 in the third round before the Hojgaard twins lit it up in the final round for their 133 score.
   When the last group turned for home, Denmark, the United States, Spain and New Zealand all stood at 34-under par.
   The U.S. got a big boost from Cole Hammer, the incoming freshman at Texas who fired a final-round 66. Hammer played some fantastic golf this summer, reaching the semifinals of both U.S. Junior Amateur at Baltusrol and the U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach.
   Hammer was part of a formidable team that included Justin Suh, the reigning Pac-12 champion who is starting his senior year at Southern California, and Collin Morikawa, a senior at California who was one of three members of the U.S. team to post 4-0 records in a powerful 19-7 victory over Great Britain & Ireland in the Walker Cup Match a year ago at Los Angeles Country Club.
   The U.S. got off to a slow start when it could do no better than a 69 from Suh and a 71 from Hammer for a 140 total that left them eight shots behind Denmark after the opening round.
Morikawa had back-to-back 66s in the second and third rounds while Suh contributed a 67 and 68 as the U.S. got back in the mix with team rounds of 133 and 134.
   Hammer’s final-round 66, combined with Suh’s 69, gave the U.S. a final-round 135 that left them a shot behind Denmark at 38-under 542.
   “It says a lot,” Hammer told the International Golf Federation website. “It speaks a lot to the way our team jelled and how much fun we had together. When you are having fun playing golf, good things happen.
   “To medal in my first international competition, especially on a stage as big as this, is really special.”
   There is no special award for the individual champion, but hey they were keeping score and the lowest individual total belonged to Alejandro Del Rey, who, after opening with a 70, ripped off rounds of 64, 68 and 65 for a 23-under 267 total. Pretty sure he’s the same guy who comes up as Alex Del Rey on the Arizona State roster as a junior.
   Del Rey led Spain to a third-place finish at 544, two shots behind the United States.
   Takumi Kanaya of Japan was the runnerup in the individual standings, a shot behind Del Rey. Suh’s 273 total left him tied for third. Denmark’s precocious Hajgaard twins finished in the top 10 individually with Nicolai Hajgaard ending up in the group tied for sixth at 274 and Rasmus Hajgaard in the group tied for eighth at 275.
   New Zealand was another shot behind Spain in fourth at 545 and Norway, Italy and Thailand finished in a tie for fifth, each ending up at 548. Norway was led by Oklahoma State junior Viktor Hovland, who, after helping the Cowboys capture an NCAA title in the spring, captured a U.S. Amateur title at Pebble Beach.
   Hovland finished in the group tied for eighth at 275 in the individual standings along with Rasmus Hojgaard and Morikawa of the U.S.
   The United States women hadn’t won the Espirito Santo Trophy since 1998 in Chile. The U.S. hadn’t so much as medaled since 2010.
   But when you send the Nos. 1 (Jennifer Kupcho), 2 (Lilia Vu) and 3 (Kristen Gillman) players in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking as your three-woman team, you should dominate and the Red, White & Blue did just that.
   Kupcho, a senior at Wake Forest and the reigning NCAA individual champion, was her typically outstanding self, firing rounds of 70, 65, 71 and 69 for a 15-under 275 total that left her tied for second in the individual standings.
   She also led the United States to a 29-under 551 total that was 10 shots clear of runnerup Japan (561).
   Gillman, who captured her second U.S. Amateur title last month at the Golf Club of Tennessee, matched Kupcho’s 65 in the second round as the U.S. took control with its 130 total. Vu’s only counter was an opening-round 72, but you’d have to understand the dynamics of stroke-play team golf to appreciate the presence of the UCLA senior on the team.
   “We have the strong bond already from the beginning, especially yesterday when we were all struggling,  we all fought for each other,” Kupcho told the International Golf Federation website in describing Team USA’s chemistry. “We all wanted to win for each other and I think that was a big thing coming out of yesterday. And I think that’s how we got our big lead coming into today.”
   Kupcho of Westminster, Colo., Gillman, a junior at Alabama from Austin, Texas, and Vu of Fountain Valley, Calif. were all members of a powerful U.S. team that claimed a 17-3 victory over Great Britain & Ireland in the Curtis Cup Match earlier this year at Quaker Ridge Golf Club in Scarsdale.
   Gillman, who helped the Crimson Tide reach the NCAA’s Final Match before falling to Arizona, became only the third player in Curtis Cup history to go 5-0. Her 12-under 278 total left her alone in fourth place in the individual standings at Carton House.
   South Korea, a true world power in women’s golf on every level, finished a shot behind Japan in third at 562. China took fourth at 14-under 566 and Germany was fifth at 11-under 569.
   The individual title went to South Korean teen Ayean Cho, who fired a 64 in the second round on her way to a 17-under 273 total. Kupcho and another teen-ager, Japan’s Yuka Yasuda, shared second place, two shots behind Cho at 275.









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