There is still romance in sport, as showcased in the World Amateur Team Championship; still room for the underdogs. A heralded star-studded team from the United States were usurped in dramatic fashion over the O’Meara Course at Carton House on Saturday, where Denmark – bolstered by superb play from teenage identical twins Nicolai and Rasmus Hojgaard – edged to an historic first-ever Eisenhower Trophy success.
“The future is bright, the future is Danish!!,” tweeted Europe’s Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjorn on hearing of the news, adding: “Absolutely amazing achievement.”
And, indeed, Denmark’s success was further proof of the country’s growing influence on the sport. The 17-year-old Hojgaards contributed hugely, Nicolai posting a final round 66 and brother Rasmus signing for a 67 which gave the great Danes an aggregate total of 39-under-par 541, just one stroke ahead of runners-up USA with Spain taking the bronze medal.
Ireland – who had contended strongly through two rounds – were left to regret Friday’s third round and rallied somewhat in the final round to secure a top-10 finish: John Murphy’s 68 and Robin Dawson’s 69 were the counting scores on Saturday, with Conor Purcell’s 74 discarded, as the home team finished in tied-10th place on 553.
“The standard of golf is something else. I saw some guys playing out there, they certainly wouldn’t be lost on tour,” said Irish non-playing captain John Carroll, who conceded that Ireland’s cause fell away with a disappointing third round.
As it happened, Saturday’s final round saw New Zealand – the third round leaders – fall away to be leapfrogged in turn by Denmark, the USA and Spain to finish outside the medals in fourth.
Denmark’s previous best finish in the Eisenhower Trophy was a silver medal in 2010. Torben Nvehuus was non-playing captain of the team then and also filled the role here. “It means a lot, just amazing,” he said of their success.
The twins produced a blistering birdie blitz on the homeward stretch to break free from a packed leaderboard. Nicolai claimed five birdies in his final nine hole while Rasmus was three-under on the same stretch. “I feel wonderful, this is a dream come true for all of us. I had a tough start to this tournament, so I was just trying to play some good rounds to help the team. I did that the last two rounds, so this is perfect, just wonderful,” said Nicolai.
Of the Irish trio, Dawson – winner of the Irish Amateur Open this season and runner-up in both the British and European Amateur championships – is shortly set to move into the professional ranks. An equine business graduate from Maynooth University, the 22-year-old Waterford man will complete his amateur career in the upcoming Home Internationals where Ireland will be seeking a fifth straight win.
Final Scores from the World Amateur Golf Championships at Carton House:
541 Denmark (Axelsen 69, Hojgaard 66, Hojgaard 67)
542 United States of America (Morikawa 71, Suh 69, Hammer 66)
544 Spain (Pastor 73, Del Rey 65, Hidalgo 72)
545 New Zealand (Ieremia 76, Mountcastle 71, Hillier 70)
548 Italy (Manzoni 72, Mazzoli 70, Scalise 70)
548 Norway (Hovland 67, Reitan 69, Volden 69)
548 Thailand (Hamamoto 71, Kaewkanjana 70, Chothirunrungrueng 72)
549 England (Petrozzi 71, Waite 69, Jordan 65)
550 Canada (Bernard 68, Rank 72, Savoie 68)
553 Germany (Hammer 74, Long 69, John 70)
553 Ireland (Murphy 68, Purcell 74, Dawson 69)
554 Australia (Lee 68, Micheluzzi 72, Wools-Cobb 70)
554 Scotland (Lumsden 71, Scott 67, Walker 71)
555 Austria (Steinlechner 73, Regner 70, Lipold 72)
556 Japan (Kanaya 67, Nakajima 69, Imano 78)
556 Switzerland (Freiburghaus 70, Cohen 68, Ettlin 73)
558 Sweden (Widing 72, Gillberg 69, Nilehn 72)
560 Argentina (Schonbaum 69, Fernandez de Oliveira 74, Contini 74)
560 Chile (Morgan Birke 69, Errazuriz 76, Gana 70)
560 Colombia (Ramirez Velandia 69, Restrepo 68, Ardila 76)
560 Wales (Chamberlain 72, Hapgood 70, Williams 69)
562 Czech Republic (Zuska 69, Hruby 73, Zach 70)
563 Republic of Korea (Choi 73, Jang 72, Oh 82)
564 Poland (Pakosch 73, Pedryc 70, Szmidt 72)
567 Belgium (Dumont de Chassart 68, De Bondt 73, de Wouters d’Oplinter 74)
567 Serbia (Cvetkovic 72, Dimitrijevic 72, Gudelj 70)
567 Singapore (Ho 69, Lee 73, Foo 71)
568 Netherlands (Ji 69, Kraai 78, van Tilburg 75)
568 Peoples Republic of China (Chen 76, Liang 73, Zhang 66)
569 South Africa (Saulez 72, Nienaber 70, Mitchell 68)
570 India (Kaul 74, Bedi 78, John Thomas 70)
572 Costa Rica (Gagne 68, Chaplet 76, Ortiz 72)
572 Hong Kong, China (Cheung 73, D’Souza 66, Ng 72)
572 Mexico (Pereda 68, Terrazas 69, Ortiz Becerra 72)
573 Iceland (Sveinbergsson 71, Juliusson 72, Petursson 68)
573 Portugal (Lopes 74, Girao 73, Lencart 71)
576 Finland (Mahonen 74, Honkala 73, Valimaki 69)
577 France (Gandon 74, Lacroix 77, Veyret 72)
578 Estonia (Hellat 77, Jegers 76, Turba 70)
578 Puerto Rico (Esteve 71, Alverio 71, Morales 80)
579 Guatemala (Villavicencio Calderon 75, Castellanos Conde 77, Gurtner 75)
579 Taipei, Chinese (Wang 73, Lai 80, Ho 73)
581 Peru (Zubiate 77, Freundt-Thurne 77, Barco 73)
581 Zimbabwe (Allard 79, Amm 69, Krog 73)
582 Brazil (Ishii 80, Park 66, Machado 73)
582 Slovakia (Brezovsky 72, Mach 70, Lucansky 83)
582 Venezuela (Garcia 70, Brauckmeyer 78, Prieto 77)
583 Dominican Republic (Valverde A 80, Pena 78, Guerra 70)
586 Morocco (Id Omar 67, Raouzi 77, Dahmane 78)
588 Bermuda (Dillas 74, Ming 74, Campbell 72)
596 Turkey (Esmer 76, Yamac 74, Acikalin 82)
599 Slovenia (Trnovec 73, Potocar 76, Burkelca 74)
601 Qatar (Al Kaabi 77, Al Kuwari 82, Al Shahrani 71)
601 Uruguay (Reyes 73, Teuten 78, Alvarez 80)
604 Croatia (Buerk 77, Stepinac 76, Vucemil 75)
604 Luxembourg (Weis 75, Weis 78, Winandy 83)
607 Saudi Arabia (Almulla 81, Alsakha 81, Attieh 77)
608 Cayman Islands (Hastings 74, Wight 79, Jarvis 73)
608 Panama (Ducruet 75, Cargiulo 74, Ordonez 76)
609 Malta (Borg 79, Critien 74, Micallef 75)
610 United Arab Emirates (Al Jasmi 70, Skaik 75, Thabet 81)
615 Liechtenstein (Schredt 80, Schreiber 75, Schredt 80)
617 Republic of Moldova (Coica 79, Volostnykh 72, Podgainii 81)
620 Bulgaria (Marinov 82, Savov 82, Staykov 71)
627 Guam (Camacho 78, Manalo WD, Poe 84)
639 Lithuania (Vaicius 85, Momkus 81, Markevicius 77)
651 Ghana (Angel 78, Dogbe 80, Kusi-Boateng 91)
664 Nigeria (Thompson 92, Inalegwu 80, Thompson 87)
678 Haiti (Brandt 87, Saint-Fort 95, Mehu 82)
699 Iraq (Al-Hashimi 101, Barnouti 101, Radee 78)
727 Gabon (Illien 83, Perez Ayo 93)
757 Armenia (Balyan 100, Karakhanyan 93, Saghatelyan 108)
