Asia-Pacific retain Bonallack Trophy, lose women’s cup to Europe

By Rahul Banerji

Asia-Pacific retained the Bonallack Trophy at the biannual men’s amateur golf tournament against Europe, overcoming a final-day fightback at La Manga in Spain recently.

In the concurrent Patsy Hankins Trophy for women, Europe won the competition for the first time since its inception in 2016 by a comfortable 19-13 margin. Queen Sirikit Cup winner Avani Prashanth was a member of Team Asia-Pacific.

Based on the Ryder Cup format with Foursomes and Fourball matches played over the first two days and 12 singles on the final day, Asia-Pacific took a solid lead into the singles and then needed to survive a spirited fight to emerge 17-15 winners.

The defending champions had India’s 1982 Asian Games gold medallist Rishi Narain as their non-playing captain.

Unlikely comeback

At one point, Europe looked like pulling off and unlikely comeback having put the defending champions under enormous pressure before the starting margin proved to be too much of a handicap.

Playing in the top match, Norway’s Herman Sekne scored a first key point for Europe, beating Australia’s Harrison Crowe, 1 up despite being one down with two to play, te European Golf Association website said.

Three further wins for Europe came quickly to trim the advantage Asia-Pacific held at the start to almost nothing.

Asia-Pacific finally got on the leaderboard with wins for Korea’s Wooyoung Cho and Yubin Jang. But with Europe winning the last two singles of the session, the decision came down to matches 8, 9 and 10.

Spain’s Luis Masaveu made a massive birdie putt on the 15th to square his match against Vietnam’s Nguyen Anh Minh. But he also missed a big opportunity on 17 to come away with a half.

Critical point

James Ashfield built a solid three-hole lead against Jack Buchanan in match number 9. But the Australian shifted up a gear to eventually secure a crucial full point for Asia-Pacific on the 17^th to ensure the champions could not be defeated.

Japan’s Yuta Sugiura still had to at least halve with England’s Barclay Brown to clinch an outright win for Asia-Pacific but made sure of the win with an outstanding bunker shot on the final hole.

In the women’s competition also played at La Manga, Europe won the Patsy Hankins Trophy against Asia-Pacific for the very first time, outscoring the defending champions by four points in the closing singles matches.

Good start

Starting the day with a two-point advantage, Europe started well as victory number one came on the 14th green with Spain’s Rocio Tejedo, beating Shannon Tan from Singapore.

Swedes Meja Örtengren and Kajsa Arwefjall secured two more full points for the home team, coming 2,5 points away from raising the trophy for the first time.

Asia-Pacific hit back with Korea’s Minsol Kim and Yeji Park bringing two quick points to the side. But Europe managed to take the lead in enough of the remaining matches to avoid any late shocks.

Also read: Avani gives India maiden Queen Sirikit Cup win, with a record