Avani finishes T4 at Abu Dhabi, fifth WATC title for South Korea

By Rahul Banerji

Avani Prashanth battled to a final level par round to take a share of fourth place in individual play at the 30^th World Amateur Team Championship for the Espirito Santo Trophy in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.

The Queen Sirikit Cup winner recovered from a mid-round slump to finish behind Taiwan’s Huai-Chien Hsu, Cayetana Fernandez Garcia-Poggio of Spain and South Korea’s Kyrorim Seo who took the top three places.

Lottie Ward of England, New Zealand’s Fiona Xu and Inez Ng of Singapore shared fourth place alongside Avani on 9 under 275.

Hsu (13 under 275) put in a late birdie run to push world number two Cayetana into second place on 11 under 277 while Seo was sole third on 10 under 278.

Avani struggled for close to two-thirds of her round, dropping shots on holes 5 and 13 before two birdies in her final three holes helped the two-time national champion salvage the day.

Best placing

With a 16th-place finish, India brought in their best Espirito Santo placing, improving on the shared 17^th of 2014.

At the top on the Abu Dhabi Golf Club’s National Course, world no. 4 Minsol Kim’s 4-under 68 and a 71 from Kyrorim Seo led South Korea to the gold medal.

It was their fourth Espirito Santo Trophy victory in the last seven competitions and their fifth overall, the event website said.

“I’m very honoured that we won this tournament,” said Seo. “I’m very grateful for my teammates doing well all four days. Our teamwork and effort helped win today.”

The Koreans jumped out to a solo lead early in the round and never gave the advantage back.

Kim, runner-up in the 2023 Women’s Amateur Asia Pacific, made back-to-back birdies on the par-5 second and par-4 third holes and again on the eighth and ninth.

Relaxed approach

“I was focused on my play,” said Kim. “I didn’t putt as aggressively as the first three rounds, was more relaxed and just tried to make par and some became birdies.”

Korea’s 72-hole score of 22-under-par 554 was four strokes better than silver medal-winning Chinese Taipei and five better than bronze medal winners Spain.

Taiwan, who started Saturday three back from the leaders, took silver with a birdie-birdie finish from individual competition topper Huai-Chien Hsu, a sophomore at the University of Texas.

It was Chinese Taipei’s first medal in its 16 Women’s World Amateur Team appearances.

Spain, the 54-hole co-leaders posted a fourth-round 144, which included a 2-under 70 from Cayetana and 74 from Carla Bernat Escuder.

Korea now have nine medals from 17 WWATC appearances – five gold, two silver and two bronze and a seventh consecutive top-10 finish in the Espirito Santo Trophy.

The 2025 edition of the WATC will be held at Tanah Merah Country Club’s Tampines Course in Singapore.

Jaglan, Chugh top Indians at AAC

Meanwhile, at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in Melbourne on Saturday, Shubham Jaglan and Raghav Chugh were tied for 24^th place as the best Indians after 54 holes.

Jaglan and Chugh, who play college golf in the US, scored 75 and 78, to be tied 24^th at 11-over par at the Royal Melbourne Golf Club.

Yuvraj Singh (78) was T49 and 13-year-old Kartik Singh shot an 81 and dropped to 18-over for a share of 54^th place.

Shaurya Bhattacharya, who recovered from a first-day 83 with a 71 on day two, carded 74 on the third for tied 42^nd place.

Japan-born Zheng Sampson-Yunhe of China led the field by four shots on 3 under 210 after a course amateur record 6 under 65 on Saturday on the par 71 course. Australia’s Billy Dowling was second on 1 over 214.

Only four players brought home under-par cards on the third day.

Sampson’s 65 broke a 55-year-old course record of 66 held by Sir Michael Bonallack. Interestingly, Sampson was in the Asia-Pacific team that won the Bonallack Trophy against Team Europe in August.

Also read: Avani one shot shy of Abu Dhabi WATC individual lead