By Rahul Banerji
Justin Leonard’s Team US survived a furious final day fightback by the Stuart Appelby-led Internationals to retain the second Junior Presidents Cup 13 matches to 11 at the Royal Melbourne Golf Club on Monday.
The Americans came into the final day sitting on a comfortable 9-3 lead after Sunday’s Four-Ball and the Foursomes on Monday morning, but the Internationals came out swinging and with everything to play for.
“It was a great comeback,” Appleby was later quoted as having said. “We needed to show resilience and they did. We made it a fight. The only thing better would’ve been to have found one more match.”
Ideal curtain-raiser
It was the perfect prelude to the senior event that pits the Tiger Woods-led US against Ernie Els’ Internationals at the same venue in two days time.
A large chunk of the American squad had an opportunity to play together at the Hero World Challenge that Tiger hosts in the Bahamas. Dustin Johnson, who had withdrawn from the World Challenge, joined Team USA in Albany the day before they flew out to Australia on a charter.
The junior event will also have prepared the big guns for what lies ahead in terms of the weather and course conditions as hot winds blew in to raise temperatures in the Melbourne area to over a hundred degrees.
With the first two sets of matches having gone the USA’s way comfortably, the Four-Balls ending in a 4-2 lead that ballooned to 9-3 after the Foursomes, they were quickly up 10-3 on Sunday with Ian Siebers winning the event’s shortest-ever match, a 7-and-6 result over Chuan-Tai Lin.
Hitting back
The Internationals however, hit back hard to take the next five matches and close the gap to 10-8 with Jayden Schaper first beating Jackson Van Paris 2.
Delhi boy Kartik Sharma bested Stephen Campbell Jr, 3&1. Andi Xu took down Maxwell Moldovan 1 up, Bo Jin won 3&2 over Benjamin James and Jang Hyun Lee finished 5&4 over Jack Heath to cut the deficit to 11-8.
At this point, all bets were off.
But the huge advantage the US held finally proved to be too much and even though the Internationals took the last three singles to win the day matches to four, wins by Michael Thorbjornsen and Alexander Yang sealed the overall result in favour of the defending champions.
Winning point
Vishnu Sadagopan handed the US their winning point when he beat Australia’s Joshua Greer 2 up. The Texas-based Sadagopan was the only player to win all his three matches this week.
“It’s probably the best thing I’ve ever accomplished in my life,” Sadagopan was quoted as saying. “To win the winning point for my country is amazing.”
Between them, Rolex Junior All-American Sadagopan, and the bespectacled, tennis-loving Sharma, a long-hitting left-hander who trains with Anitya Chand at the DLF academy, picked up a total of four points.
Results
Four-Ball: Jack Heath/Maxwell Moldovan (USA) bt Karl Vilips/Joshua Greer (Intls) 2&1; Preston Summerhays/Stephen Campbell Jr (USA) bt Chuan-Tai Lin/Bo Jin (Intls) 2&1; Vishnu Sadagopan/Benjamin James (USA) bt Kartik Sharma/Andi Xu (Intls) 3&1.
Ian Siebers/Alexander Yang (USA) tied Jordan Duminy/Jang Hyun Lee (Intls); Canon Claycomb/Jackson Van Paris (USA) tied Matin Vorster/Jayden Scpaher (Intls); Michael Thorbjornsen/Brett Roberts (USA) lost to Samuel Simpson/Christo Lamprecht (Intls) 1&3. USA lead 4/2.
Foursomes: Stephen Campbell Jr/Jack Heath (USA) lost to Chuan-Tai Lin/Bo Jin (Intls) 1&2; Benjamin James/Alexander Yang (USA) bt Joshua Greer/Karl Vilips (Intls) 2&1; Vishnu Sadagopan/Ian Siebers (USA) bt Jang Hyun Lee/Jordan Duminy (Intls) 2 up.
Preston Summerhays/Jackson Van Paris (USA) bt Andi Xu/Kartik Sharma (Intls) 6&4; Michael Thorbjornsen/Canon Claycomb (USA) bt Christo Lamprecht/Samuel Simpson (Intls) 2&1. USA lead 9/3.
Singles (US names first): Ian Siebers bt Chuan Tai Lin 7&6; Jackson Van Paris lost to Jayden Schaper 2 up; Stephen Campbell Jr lost to Kartik Sharma 1&3; Maxwell Moldovan lost to Andi Xu 1 up; Benjamin James lost to Bo Jin 2&3; Jack Heath lost to Jang Hyun Lee 4&5.
Alexander Yang bt Jordan Duminy 2 up; Vishnu Sadagopan bt Joshua Greer 2 up; Michael Thorbjornsen bt Karl Vilips 4&3; Preston Summerhays lost to Samuel Simpson 1 up; Canon Claycomb lost to Martin Vorster 1&2; Brett Roberts lost to Christo Lamprecht 3&4. USA win 13/11.
Also read: Kartik Sharma makes the cut for Junior Presidents Cup
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