La Manga, Murcia, Spain: The Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC) men’s team are on the brink of pulling off a stunning Bonallack Trophy victory.
Tied at 5-5 after the opening-day at La Manga Club, the Asia-Pacific followed up their 4½-½ triumph in the day two morning foursomes by winning the afternoon fourballs 3-2 against a strong European Golf Association (EGA) line-up.
“I don’t think Asia-Pacific has ever enjoyed a day in the Bonallack Trophy as successful as this,” said Taimur Hassan Amin, Chairman of the APGC and a past Bonallack Trophy captain.
“It’s been an incredible team effort. We now have to stay focused, not get ahead of ourselves and take it one shot at a time,” said non-playing captain Rishi Narain, whose team will take a 12½-7½ advantage into the final day on Saturday when there will be 12 singles matches.
With a total of 16½ points required to win the trophy, Asia-Pacific needs to gain four points from the singles. In the case of a 16-16 tie, Asia-Pacific would retain the title they won in Qatar when the event was last staged in 2018.
The Asia-Pacific’s women face a sterner task to win the Patsy Hankins Trophy for a third time in succession. They trail 9-11 after two days and will need seven points from the 12 singles to retain their crown.
Like their male counterparts, the Asia-Pacific women produced some sensational golf on day two having been behind 3½ -6½ overnight deficit.
In windy conditions, they won the day two morning foursomes 3½-1½ to reduce the overall deficit to 7-8. They then lost the afternoon fourballs session 2-3.
Maddison Hinson-Tolchard won both of her games in partnership with fellow-Australian Caitlin Peirce and has the distinction of being the only Asia-Pacific player to win all four matches here. She was paired with Japan’s Nanako Inagaki in the day one fourballs.
Friday was also a day to remember for Inagaki and Thai Rina Tatematsu as they won both of their matches. In the morning they were two-down with three to play and won the 16th, 17th and 18th for an unlikely one-up success.
New Zealand’s Fiona Xu also had cause to celebrate, holing her four-iron tee shot for an ace at the par-three 17th to help her and Tiffany Huang Ting-hsuan to a half-point.
All five matches in the men’s fourballs were close affairs, three being decided at the par-five 18th and two on 17. At one stage on the back nine, Asia-Pacific were ahead in four matches and level in one.
But Australians Harrison Crowe and Jack Buchanan lost their 100 per cent record when they were beaten one-down by Sweden’s Albert Hansson and Tobias Jonsson.
In a reversal of their day one match when Japan’s Taichiro Ideriha and Yuta Sugiura defeated John Gough and Alex Maguire with an eagle on the final green, it was the Europeans who prevailed by the same slim margin on day two thanks to a closing eagle of their own.
Chinese Taipei’s Lin Chuan-tai and China’s Sampson Zheng Yunhe followed their morning triumph against Hansson and Jonsson by seeing off Welshman James Ashfield and England’s Barclay Brown 3&1 in fourballs.
In so doing they maintained their 100 per cent record, having also won their fourballs encounter on Thursday when Zheng was playing with borrowed clubs. To his delight and relief, Zheng’s clubs that had gone missing en route from Japan finally showed up in time for him to use them to good effect on day two.
Like Lin and Zheng, the New Zealand pairing of Joshua Bai and Mako Thompson closed out their match on the 17th green.
Koreans Cho Woo-young and Jang Yu-bin should also have been walking off 17 with a point in the bag but both three-putted, meaning their clash with Nicola Gerhardsen and Frederik Kjettrup was extended to the 18th where a half proved good enough.
BONALLACK TROPHY RESULTS
Overall: Asia-Pacific 12½ Europe 7½
DAY TWO FOUR BALLS
Asia-Pacific 3 Europe 2
Taichiro Ideriha and Yuta Sugiura lost to John Gough and Alex Maguire 1-down
Harrison Crowe and Jack Buchanan lost to Albert Hansson and Tobias Jonsson 1-down
Lin Chuan-tai and Sampson Zheng Yunhe beat James Ashfield and Barclay Brown 3&1
Cho Woo-young and Jang Yu-bin beat Nicola Gerhardsen and Frederik Kjettrup 1-up
Joshua Bai and Mako Thompson beat Tiger Christensen and Luis Masaveu 2&1
DAY TWO FOURSOMES
Asia-Pacific 4½ Europe ½
Lin Chuan-tai and Sampson Zheng Yunhe beat Albert Hansson and Tobias Jonsson 4&3
Cho Woo-young and Jang Yu-bin halved with John Gough and Barclay Brown
Harrison Crowe and Jack Buchanan beat James Ashfield and Alex Maguire 3&2
Joshua Bai and Nguyen Anh Minh beat Michael Mjaaseth and Herman Sekne 1-up
Taichiro Ideriha and Yuta Sugiura beat Tiger Christensen and Nicola Gerhardsen 5&4
DAY ONE FOUR BALLS
Asia-Pacific 3 Europe 2
Harrison Crowe and Jack Buchanan beat Tiger Christensen and Nicola Gerhardsen 2&1
Taichiro Ideriha and Yuta Sugiura beat John Gough and Alex Maguire 1-up
Lin Chuan-tai and Sampson Zheng Yunhe beat Luis Masaveu and Frederik Kjettrup 3&2
Joshua Bai and Nguyen Anh Minh lost to Albert Hansson and Tobias Jonsson 2&1
Cho Woo-young and Jang Yu-bin lost to Michael Mjaaseth and Herman Sekne 5&4
DAY ONE FOURSOMES
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 RESULTS
Overall: Asia-Pacific 9 Europe 11
DAY TWO FOURBALLS
Asia-Pacific 2 Europe 3
Park Ye-ji and Kim Min-sol lost to Rocio Tejedo and Helen Briem 3&2
Rina Tatematsu and Nanako Inagaki beat Savannah De Bock and Celina Rosa Sattelkau 4&3
Maddison Hinson-Tolchard and Caitlin Peirce beat Kajsa Arwefjall and Patricie Mackova 2&1
Tiffany Huang Ting-hsuan and Mizuki Hashimoto lost to Beth Coulter and Patience Rhodes 1-down
Avani Prashanth and Shannon Tan lost to Lottie Woad and Meja Örtengren 3&2
DAY TWO FOURSOMES
Asia-Pacific 3½ Europe 1½
Maddison Hinson-Tolchard and Caitlin Peirce beat Helen Briem and Francesca Fiorellini 3&2
Rina Tatematsu and Nanako Inagaki beat Lottie Woad and Patience Rhodes 1-up
Fiona Xu and Tiffany Huang Ting-hsuan halved with Beth Coulter and Celina Rosa Sattelkau
Elaine Widjaja and Shannon Tan lost to Kajsa Arwefjall and Meja Örtengren 2-down
Kim Min-sol and Park Ye-ji beat Cayetana Fernandez Garcia-Poggio and Rocio Tejedo 6&5
Day One: Asia-Pacific 3½ Europe 6½
Asia-Pacific 1 Europe 4
Shannon Tan and Caitlin Peirce lost to Kajsa Arwefjall and Patricie Mackova 1-down
Maddison Hinson-Tolchard and Nanako Inagaki beat Helen Briem and Savannah De Bock 1-up
Park Ye-ji and Mizuki Hashimoto lost to Cayetana Fernandez Garcia-Poggio and Francesca Fiorellini 4&3
Avani Prashanth and Fiona Xu lost to Rocio Tejedo and Meja Örtengren 5&4
Tiffany Huang Ting-hsuan and Kim Min-sol XXX Beth Coulter and Lottie Woad
DAY ONE FOURSOMES
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