Saturday 21st October 2023
Round 4
USA (-36) won the 33rd Men’s World Amateur Team Championship by 11-shots.
The team finished the event off in style compiling the low round of the Championship; a 132 (-12), helped in no small part by a 64 from David FORD, the second lowest round in the tournament’s history.
It was the USA’s 16th win in the competition and they now will take custody of the Eisenhower Trophy until it’s next playing in 2025 at the Tenah Merah C.C. in Singapore.
Team USA – Nick Dunlap, David Ford & Gordon Sargent (Photo: IGF)
NORWAY and AUSTRALIA (-25) tied for 2nd place with FRANCE (-24) 4th and NEW ZEALAND and ITALY (-23) tied 5th. It was Norway’s best ever finish in their 26 appearances to date.
IRELAND (-20) finished strongly to rise 11 places on the final day and secure a tied 8th finish.
ENGLAND (-14) finished tied 15th, WALES (-13) tied 17th and SCOTLAND (-10) tied 21st.
32 of the 36 teams finished the 72 holes with an under par score.
Team Results (Photo: IGF / Golf Genius)
Western Amateur champion Kazuma KOBORI (NZL) took the low Individual title with a 272 (-16) total. He rose eight places to secure the honour with a fine 65 (-7) in the final round.
Reigning U.S. Amateur champion Nick DUNLAP (USA) finished 2nd on -15 with France’s Bastien AMAT and Norway’s Herman WIBE SEKNE -14 one shot further back.
Leading Individual Results (Photo: IGF / Golf Genius)
Matt MCCLEAN (IRL) -11 produced the best performance by a GB&I player finishing tied 8th.
Connor GRAHAM (SCO) -10 again impressed at the highest level with a very consistent performance to finish tied 14th.
Five other GB&I players finished under par for the Championship. Tyler WEAVER (ENG) -8 was tied 17th, Tomi BOWEN (WAL) -6 tied 30th, Alex MAGUIRE (IRL), who came through the standings with a final day 65, -5 tied 36th, Jack BIGHAM (ENG) -3 tied 43rd and Liam NOLAN (IRL) -2 tied 50th.
GB&I Individual Results (Photo: IGF / Golf Genius)
Click here to view the – Men’s 2023 WATC Team Results
Click here to view the – Men’s 2023 WATC Individual Results
ME.
__________________________________________
Friday 20th October 2023
Round 3
A third round 136 (-8) helped USA (-24) extend their lead in the Men’s World Amateur Team Championship to 4-shots.
FRANCE & NORWAY (-20) tied 2nd are their nearest challengers, the Scandinavians posting a 134 score on Day 3.
AUSTRALIA (-19) 4th and CZECH REPUBLIC (-18) 5th round off the top 5.
Disappointingly the four home nation teams again made little progress in Abu Dhabi. SCOTLAND (-11) tied 16th and WALES, IRELAND & ENGLAND (-10) tied 19th now look destined to finish in the middle of the pack.
29 of the 36 teams are now under par, up three from the Round 2 number. NORWAY (-20), for the second day running, and SOUTH KOREA (-11) were the two biggest movers, both rising 9 places on the leaderboard. ITALY (-16) also enjoyed a good day rising 7 places in to 8th.
Round 3 Team Scores (Photo: IGF / Golf Genius)
The world’s best amateur Gordon SARGENT (USA) posted a 67 in Round 3 to move to the top of the Individual standings on 204 (-12).
Herman WIBE SEKNE (NOR), Jeff GUAN (AUS), Pietro BOVARI (ITA), Bastien AMAT (FRA), Nick DUNLAP (USA) and Nicolas QUINTERO (COL) are all tied 2nd on -11.
Matt MCCLEAN (IRL) is the best of the home nation players after a second consecutive 68 took him to -8 and tied 14th place. Connor GRAHAM (SCO) & Tyler WEAVER (ENG) -7 tied 16th, Tomi BOWEN (WAL) & James ASHFIELD (WAL) -5 tied 33rd, Calum SCOTT (SCO) -4 tied 38th and Barclay BROWN (ENG) -2 tied 48th are the best of the rest after 54 holes.
Round 3 Leading Individual Scores (Photo: IGF / Golf Genius)
ME.
__________________________________________
Thursday 19th October 2023
Round 2
USA (-16) moved ominously into the lead on Day 2 of the Men’s World Amateur Team Championship in the Middle East. They followed up yesterday’s joint best 135 (-9) with a 137 (-7) team score today.
CHINA and FRANCE (-15) are 1-shot back in tied 2nd with CZECH REPUBLIC and AUSTRALIA (-14) tied 4th.
After 36 holes ENGLAND (-8) are tied 15th (down 11 places), SCOTLAND & WALES (-7) tied 17th down 4 and 1 places) and IRELAND (-4) tied 23rd (up 3 places) after second rounds of 143 (-1), 140 (-4), 139 (-5) and 139 (-5) respectively at the Abu Dhabi G.C.
26 of the 36 teams are now under par, up three from yesterday. MEXICO (-12) tied 8th and NORWAY (-10) tied 11th with the biggest movers rising 13 places on the leaderboard. Mexico’s Round 2 133 (-11) team score was the best we have seen so far.
Round 2 Team Scores (Photo: IGF / Golf Genius)
15 year old Hugo LE GOFF (FRA), today starting on the 1st tee, again showed his liking for Abu Dhabi’s front nine. Three birdies and an eagle before a bogey on the 9th saw him post a second 32 for these holes. A 68 took up onto 135 (-9) for the Championship and into the Individual lead.
Pietro BOVARI (ITA), Zhang QIU (CHN), Nick DUNLAP (USA) and Filip JAKUBCIK (CZE) are all tied 2nd on -8.
Herman WIBE SEKNE (NOR) bounced back from an opening 73 with a Championship low 64 (-8) which included nine birdies.
Tyler WEAVER (ENG) -5 tied 19th remains the best of the 12 GB&I players competing. Matt MCCLEAN (IRL), James ASHFIELD (WAL) and Calum SCOTT (SCO) -4 tied 23rd, Tomi BOWEN (WAL) & Connor GRAHAM (SCO) -3 tied 35th and Barclay BROWN (ENG) -2 tied 45th are our other players under par at the half-way stage.
Round 2 Leading Individual Scores (Photo: IGF / Golf Genius)
ME.
__________________________________________
Wednesday 18th October 2023
Round 1
FRANCE and USA have taken the early lead in the Men’s World Amateur Team Championship after posting a 135 (-9) score on Day 1.
ENGLAND (-7) are tied 4th, SCOTLAND (-3) tied 13th, WALES (-2) tied 16th and IRELAND (+1) tied 26th after their rounds at the Abu Dhabi G.C.
23 of the 36 teams finished Round 1 with an under par total score.
Play got underway at 6.30am with Ahmad Skaik (UAE), son of Akram Skaik, the Director General of the Emirates Golf Federation, given the honour of hitting the opening tee shot. Conditions were excellent all day with temperatures reaching 36ºC.
Round 1 Team Scores (Photo: IGF / Golf Genius)
Starting on the 10th tee Benjamin REUTER (NED), who plays at Georgia Tech University, shot 31 on the front nine, which included three birdies and an eagle, to finish the day with a 66 (-6) to top the Individual standings.
1-shot back and tied 2nd are Hugo LE GOLF (FRA), aged 15 but surprisingly only the fifth youngest player in the field, and Gordon SARGENT (USA), who secured his PGA Tour card today by accumulating 20 points under the PGA Tour University Accelerated scheme, who both fired 65s (-5).
From the home nations Tyler WEAVER (ENG) -4 tied 4th, Barclay BROWN (ENG) -3 tied 11th, Connor GRAHAM (SCO) & Tomi BOWEN (WAL) -2 tied 26th, Calum SCOTT (SCO) -1 tied 38th and Jack BIGHAM (ENG), Matt MCCLEAN (IRL) & James ASHFIELD (WAL) Ev tied 46th all started their Championships with rounds of par or better.
Round 1 Leading Individual Scores (Photo: IGF / Golf Genius)
ME.
__________________________________________
17th October 2023
The 33rd Men’s World Amateur Team Championship (WATC), played for the Eisenhower Trophy, starts on Wednesday 18th October in Abu Dhabi.
This year the Championship will be hosted by the Emirates Golf Federation and played on the National Course at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club.
It was originally scheduled to be played in neighbouring Dubai on the Fire Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates.
It is the first time the event has been staged in the Middle East and sees it move to odd years to avoid a clash with the Summer Olympic Games in future years.
Due to the escalating costs of staging the WATC it is now being played on a single course with the field reduced to 36 teams.
The WATC is a biennial international amateur golf competition run by the International Golf Federation (IGF), formerly known as the World Amateur Golf Council.
The IGF comprises 152 national governing bodies of golf in 149 countries as well as tours and organizations that conduct championships. It is recognised by the International Olympic Committee as the body responsible for golf and as such, in addition to the Men’s and Women’s WATC’s it also organises the golf competitions in both the Olympics and Youth Olympics.
The WATC are hosted by rotation taking in Asia-Pacific, the Americas, Europe, Africa and for the first time in 2023 the Middle East.
The first WATC took place in 1958 and was played over the Old Course at St. Andrews. Bobby Jones captained the United States of America famously receiving the Freedom of the Town during the trip, although his team ended up losing a play-off to Australia for the title.
Competition Format
36 teams are competing in the 2023 WATC.
The three players from each team play 72 holes of stroke play over four days. The two lowest rounds recorded on each day count towards the team’s total score.
The winning team receive the Eisenhower Trophy. The Trophy was provided in 1958 by the American Friends of Golf through the United States Golf Association and the Royal and Ancient GolfGolf Club of St. Andrews, Scotland. It is named in honour of the then United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The inscription on the trophy reads: “To foster friendship and sportsmanship among the Peoples of the World.”
Players in the leading three teams receive gold, silver and bronze medals.
Whilst individual results are reported and the player with the lowest score is recognised at the closing ceremony there has historically been no prize awarded for this achievement.
GB&I Competitors
The home nations will be represented by the following players (WAGR as at 11th October): –
ENGLAND – Jack BIGHAM (#93), Barclay BROWN (#28), Tyler WEAVER (#188)
England (Photo: IGF)
IRELAND – Alex MAGUIRE (#135), Matthew MCCLEAN (#57), Liam NOLAN (#124)
Ireland (Photo: IGF)
SCOTLAND – Connor GRAHAM (#203), Calum SCOTT (#27), Gregor TAIT (#251)
Scotland (Photo: IGF)
WALES – James ASHFIELD (#64), Tomi BOWEN (#259), Matt ROBERTS (#389)
Wales (Photo: IGF)
The other competing nations are as follows with those highlighted expected to be the most competitive.
ARGENTINA – Joaquín Ludueña (#669), Vicente Marzilio (#221), Segundo Oliva Pinto (#200)
AUSTRALIA – Jack Buchanan (#114), Jeffrey Guan (#56), Karl Vilips (#29)
AUSTRIA – Christoph Bleier (#104), Fabian Lang (#684), Florian Schweighofer (#626)
CANADA – Piercen Hunt (#252), Ashton McCulloch (#540), Brady McKinlay (#356)
CHINA – Xiangyun Bai (#112), Zihang Qiu (#108), Ziqin Zhou (#113)
COLOMBIA – Carlos Ardila Conde (#205), Manuel Jose Merizalde Padilla (#216), Nicolas Quintero (#763)
CZECH REPUBLIC – Petr Hruby (#68), Filip Jakubcik (#87), Louis Klein (#375)
DENMARK – Gustav Frimodt (#25), Frederik Kjettrup (#15), Jacob Skov Olesen (#283)
FINLAND – Elias Haavisto (#447), Markus Luoma (#290), Jesse Saareks (#1630)
FRANCE – Bastien Amat (#116), Paul Beauvy (#234), Hugo Le Goff (#591)
GERMANY – Jonas Baumgartner (#35), Tiger Christensen (#162), Tim Wiedemeyer (#139)
GUAM – Markus Nanpei (#NR), Eugene Park (#NR), Nalapon Vongjalorn (#NR)
GUATEMALA – Juan Ricardo Davila (#401), Gabriel Palacios (#201), Alejandro Villavicencio (#154)
INDIA – Shaurya Bhattacharya (#455), Rohit Narwal (#589), Yuvraj Singh (#213)
ITALY – Pietro Bovari (#77), Riccardo Fantinelli (#382), Flavio Michetti (#596)
JAPAN – Riura Matsui (#153), Minato Oshima (#210), Yuta Sugiura (#16)
SOUTH KOREA – Seonghyeon An (#769), Sungho Lee (#950), Donghyun Moon (#629)
MEXICO – Santiago De la Fuente del Valle (#118), José Cristobal Islas (#73), Omar Morales (#226)
MOROCCO – Soufiane Dahmane (#493), El Fakori Mehdi (#240), Hugo Mazen Trometter (#789)
NETHERLANDS – Jack Ingham (#161), Benjamin Reuter (#220), Lars van der Vight (#75)
NEW ZEALAND – Jayden Ford (#128), Samuel Jones (#106), Kazuma Kobori (#33)
NORWAY – Mats Ege (#58), Michael Mjaaseth (#59), Herman Wibe Sekne (#24)
SINGAPORE – Ryan Ang (#345), Troy Tian Storm (#NR), Hiroshi Tai (#67)
SOUTH AFRICA – Christo Lamprecht (#1) , Christiaan Maas (#14), Altin van der Merwe (#228)
SPAIN – Angel Ayora (#89), Jose Luis Ballester Barrio (#20), Luis Masaveu Roncal (#54)
SWEDEN – Albert Hansson (#49), Daniel Svard (#152), Tobias Jonsson (#31)
SWITZERLAND – Nicola Gerhardsen (#82), Marc Keller (#954), Maximilien Sturdza (#253)
CHINESE TAIPEI – Chi Chun Chen (#244), Chuan-Tai Lin (#72), Ching-Hung Su (#241)
THAILAND – Jiradech Chaowarat (#945), Ashita Piamkulvanich (#416), Parin Sarasmut (#1223)
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – Rayan Ahmed (#NR), Thomas Nesbitt (#3088), Ahmad Skaik (#1863)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA – Nick Dunlap (#4), David Ford (#5), Gordon Sargent (#2)
ZIMBABWE – Tafadzwa Nyamukondiwa (#2715), Keegan Shutt (#1526), David Amm (#1706)
Venue
The 2023 WATC will be played on the National Course at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club.
The club, with its iconic ‘falcon clubhouse’, is well known to golf fans having hosted 16 consecutive editions of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship between 2006-2021 on the DP World Tour.
The course was designed by Peter Harradine and opened for play in May 2000. It was carved out of the desert and features undulating fairways, fast greens and seven large water hazards.
This week it will be set up to play to 7,552 yards – the longest in the history of the event – and will have a par of 72. It has a slope of 155.
Hole 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Total
Par 4 5 4 3 4 4 3 5 4 36
Yards 405 600 439 158 440 469 200 572 456 3,739
Hole 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Total
Par 5 4 3 4 4 3 4 4 5 36
Yards 582 460 176 414 490 199 475 460 557 3,813
Additional Information
Click here to view the – Official IGF World Amateur Team Championships Webpage
2022 WATC
ITALY won the Eisenhower Trophy at the 32nd World Amateur Team Championship (WATC) in France.
The competition was played on the Albatross Course at Le Golf National and on the Red Course at Golf de Saint-Nom-la-Brèteche.
It was the first time that Italy had won a medal, let alone gold, at the WATC.
Team Italy (Photo: IGF / USGA / Steve Gibbons)
ITALY finished on an impressive 541 -31 total with SWEDEN, whose Women’s team had won their WATC the previous week, missing out on a rare double by 1-shot. USA finished 3rd on -27, NORWAY -25 4th and SPAIN -23 5th.
WALES (-17), tied 8th, were delighted to finish as the leading home nation team. It was the Principality’s best result at the WATC since they came in fourth in 2006 with a team that consisted of Nigel Edwards, Rhys Davies and Llewellyn Matthews.
ENGLAND (-14) 14th, IRELAND (-8) tied 19th and SCOTLAND (+2) 33rd all finished lower than they would have hoped in Paris.
Team Results (Graphic: IGF / Golf Genius)
Tobias JONSSON (SWE) shot a final round 66 at Le Golf National to secure Low Individual honours with a 269 -17 total.
Taga SEMIKAWA (JAP), who had led from the opening day and started Round 4 with a 5-shot lead, sadly struggled to a disappointing 73 to finish second on -16.
Austin GREASER (USA) completed a consistent championship with a 67 to finish 3rd on 271 -15.
Archie DAVIES (WAL) had the best Individual score by a home nation player, finishing tied 9th with a 274 -12 result.
Looking at the our other leading home nation players Mark POWER (IRL) & Sam BAIRSTOW (ENG) -6 finished tied 25th, John GOUGH (ENG) -4 tied 31st, James ASHFIELD (WAL) -2 tied 40th and Calum SCOTT (SCO) & Luke HARRIES (WAL) Ev tied 46th.
Individual Results (Graphic: IGF / Golf Genius)
Click here to view the – Men’s 2022 WATC Team Results
Click here to view the – Men’s 2022 WATC Individual Results
Historic Results
GREAT BRITAIN & IRELAND (GB&I) have won the Eisenhower Trophy four times but only SCOTLAND have won it in their own right since each of the home nations started to compete separately.
The competion holds a special place in the story of English amateur Peter MCEVOY. He participated in the winning GB&I team in 1988, he also ‘won’ the Individual (284) that year and he went on to captain the GB&I team that won it again in 1998. A hat trick of Eisenhower Trophy achievements that may prove difficult for anyone else to match.
Here are the historic Men’s WATC results: –
Future WATC Events
The International Golf Federation has confirmed the following future venues for the WATC: –
34th – 2025 – Singapore
35th – 2027 – Morocco
36th – 2029 – To be determined
ME.
Copyright © 2014-2023, Mark Eley. All rights reserved.
Golf Bible 