Golf: Europe take slender lead over Asia Pacific in Sir Michael Bonallack Trophy

IANS

Bangalore, March 26 (IANS): Europe took a 6-4 lead over Asia-Pacific after reigning European amateur champion Ashley Chesters and compatriot Ryan Evans won both morning and afternoon matches for the Sir Michael Bonallack Trophy at the KGA course here Wednesday.

In the three-day Ryder Cup style amateur match between 12-member teams, Europe, who trailed by 2 to 3 after the morning session, won four out of five matches in the afternoon to forge ahead.

In the morning session, Chesters and Evans beat the fancied Australian duo of Geoff Drakeford and Taylor MacDonald by a comprehensive margin of five holes up with only four to play.

The English pair never looked back after being tied for the first five holes, and then helped by three consecutive birdies on sixth, seventh, eighth took a 3-up lead at the halfway stage.

An eagle score of 3 on the long par 5 11th hole by Evans followed by two more birdies on 13th and 14th helped them finish the morning match with a comfortable margin.

On day one, each team had to play five matches in a format of pairs in the morning and another five matches in the afternoon for a gruelling 36 holes in warm weather. The same format will be followed on day two and day three will see 12 singles matches.

In the afternoon session, Koreans Nam-Hun Kim and Soo-Min Lee, the only returning player on either team from the 2012 match started impressively, winning the first hole, but again Chesters and Evans responded with a barrage of birdies to win the 5th, 6th, 10th, 12th, 13th and 14th to close the match 5-up.

In the other matches, the Korean duo of Nam-Hun Kim and Soo-Min Lee defeated Mario Galiano of Spain and Renato Paratore of Italy 2 and 1 in the morning round.

Both the pairs started their match with a remarkable eagle 2 on the par 4 first hole and then Mario shot a birdie 3 on the second to go 1-up. However, a birdie by Nam brought the match to all square.

From the fourth hole onwards, Nam and Soo never gave a chance to Mario and Renato as they stayed up by winning the 4th, 5th, 13th and 17th.

The third match of the morning session between Chinese teenagers who are earmarked for stardom in the future -

Zecheng Dou and Chieh-Po Lee of Taipei and Germans Max Roherig and 16-year old Dominic Foos proved very interesting.

Both the teams were all square after 16 holes. The Chinese boys then won the 17th hole and held on to that margin to win the match 1-up. In the afternoon, however, the Chinese were beaten by the Irish Gavin Moynihan and Dermot McElroy 3 and 2.

The Japanese pair of Kenta Konishi and Daichi Sato beat James Ross of Scotland and Mads Soegaard of Denmark by a huge margin of 5-up in the morning, firing five birdies and were never threatened. However, in the afternoon, they lost to Germans Max Rohreig and Dominic Foos 2 and 3.

India’s Karan Taunk and New Zealand’s Joshua Munn lost the closest match of the morning session against Moynihan and McElroy to miss out on scoring a point.

The first two days comprise of pairs formats with an alternate shot format match and a better ball (of the two players) format. A total of 32 matches will be played with each side scoring one point for a win, and half a point for a match tied at the end of regulation 18 holes. The first team to reach 16.5 points will be the winner.

Played biennially, this celebrated championship has been won by the European team five times since its inception in 1998 while the Asia-Pacific team has won it twice in 2002 and 2004.

Edited by Staff Editor