Bonallack and Patsy Hankins Trophies Underway in Spain
La Manga, Murcia, Spain: It was all to play for following the morning session on day one of the Bonallack Trophy and Patsy Hankins Trophy. In the men’s Bonallack Trophy, Asia-Pacific trailed 2-3 after the opening foursomes session at La Mang...
La Manga, Murcia, Spain: It was all to play for following the morning session on day one of the Bonallack Trophy and Patsy Hankins Trophy.
In the men’s Bonallack Trophy, Asia-Pacific trailed 2-3 after the opening foursomes session at La Manga Club’s South Course.
In the women’s Patsy Hankins Trophy, the Asia-Pacific team battled back well to finish the session all square at 2½ - 2½.
“We expected it to be a close match and it looks like it’s going to work out that way,” said Taimur Hassan Amin, Chairman of the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation, ahead of the afternoon fourballs.
The contests, which parallel the Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup formats, are taking place for the first time in five years after the previous edition was cancelled due to Covid restrictions.
Leading from the front, Harrison Crowe and Jack Buchanan came from behind to claim the notable scalp of England's John Gough and Barclay Brown, 3&1.
“We made a bit of a shaky start, but came back strongly,” said Crowe, the reigning Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship winner.
After Buchanan failed to convert an eight-footer for what would have been a winning birdie at the opening hole, the Australians lost the next two holes before launching a strong comeback that saw them move into a two-up lead through 16. They closed out the match at the short 17th.
The only other morning winners for the Asia-Pacific men were Cho Woo-young and Jang Yu-bin. Four-up at one stage, the Koreans were pegged back to two-up by Spaniard Luis Masaveu and Dane Frederik Kjettrup. But Cho and Jang maintained their concentration to prevail 3&2.
For the three other Asia-Pacific pairings, it was a chastening first-day experience, all losing heavily.
Fresh from his final appearance in the US Junior Amateur last weekend, Joshua Bai and fellow-New Zealander Mako Thompson lost to Norway’s Michael Mjaaseth and Herman Sekne 5&3.
Behind them, Japan’s Taichiro Ideriha and Yuta Sugiura suffered a 6&5 thrashing at the hands of Sweden’s Albert Hansson and Tobias Jonsson.
Chinese Taipei’s Lin Chuan-tai and Malaysian Malcolm Ting fared only slightly better, going down 5&4 to Welshman James Ashfield and Irishman Alex Maguire.
In the morning foursomes, the picture looked grim for Asia-Pacific's women when they trailed in four of the five matches into the back nine.
But from losing positions with two holes to play, Australians Maddison Hinson-Tolchard and Caitlin Peirce and Koreans Kim Min-sol and Park Ye-ji conjured 1½ points.
One-down playing the last, Peirce struck a beautiful four-iron approach to 15 feet. After their opponents failed to convert an eagle opportunity, Hinson-Tolchard made no mistake from 15 feet to win the hole and claim a deserved half.
“We played well,” said Hinson-Tolchard after securing the crucial half-point against the Swedish duo of Kajsa Arwefjall and Meja Örtengren. “It was a close match in which there was never more than one hole in it,” she added.
Directly following them were Kim and Park, who levelled their contest against Germany’s Helen Briem and Celina Rosa Sattelkau at the 17th when their opponents missed a short par-putt.
With pressure mounting as they headed to the par-five 18th, it was the Koreans who stood firm. While they found the front of the green in two, the Germans met a watery grave with their approach and ended up conceding the hole giving an improbable point to the Asia-Pacific.
“Come on! We can do it,” said Park, as she was greeted by team-mates at the back of the 18th green.
The only other Asia-Pacific winners in the morning were the team of New Zealand’s Fiona Xu and Chinese Taipei’s Tiffany Huang Ting-hsuan.
Xu and Huang combined nicely to see off the challenge of Northern Ireland’s Beth Coulter and Italian Francesca Fiorellini 3&1.
The other two contests went the way of the Europeans with Japan’s Mizuki Hashimoto and Nanako Inagaki falling 4&3 to the English pair of Lottie Woad and Patience Rhodes 4&3.
Thai Rina Tatematsu and Indonesian Elaine Widjaja began their match promisingly and held an early lead. But they were eventually overhauled by the all-Spanish team of Cayetana Fernandez Garcia-Poggio and Rocio Tejedo, 3&2.
BONALLACK TROPHY
FOURSOMES RESULTS
Asia-Pacific 2 Europe 3
Harrison Crowe and Jack Buchanan beat John Gough and Barclay Brown 3&1
Joshua Bai and Mako Thompson lost to Michael Mjaaseth and Herman Sekne 5&3
Taichiro Ideriha and Yuta Sugiura lost to Albert Hansson and Tobias Jonsson 6&5
Lin Chuan-tai and Malcolm Ting lost to James Ashfield and Alex Maguire 5&4
Cho Woo-young and Jang Yu-bin beat Luis Masaveu Roncal and Frederik Kjettrup 3&2
PATSY HANKINS TROPHY
FOURSOMES RESULTS
Asia-Pacific 2½ Europe 2½
Maddison Hinson-Tolchard and Caitlin Peirce halved with Kajsa Arwefjall and Meja Örtengren
Kim Min-sol and Park Ye-ji beat Helen Briem and Celina Rosa Sattelkau 1-up
Rina Tatematsu and Elaine Widjaja lost to Cayetana Fernandez Garcia-Poggio and Rocio Tejedo 3&2
Mizuki Hashimoto and Nanako Inagaki lost to Lottie Woad and Patience Rhodes 4&3
Fiona Xu and Tiffany Huang Ting-hsuan beat Beth Coulter and Francesca Fiorellini 3&1
