Great Danes on Top of the World Down Under

Post by Sports Writer Derek Clements

DENMARK wrote a piece of history by winning the ISPS Handa World Cup of Golf at Kingston Heath Golf Club in Australia. Soren Kjeldsen and Thorbjorn Olesen took the tournament by the scruff of the neck after a brilliant betterball second round of 60 and were never behind after that.

They began the final round with a four-shot lead and held on despite the best efforts of the United States (Jimmy Walker and Rickie Fowler), China (WU Ashun and LI Haotong), Sweden (Alex Noren and David Lingmerth) and France (Victory Dubuisson and Romain Langasque ) they held on to maintain that lead. At one point on the back nine the advantage was cut to a single stroke, but the Danes had five birdies in six holes from the 10th and Kjeldsen and Olesen ultimately ran out comfortable winners after finishing on 20 under par courtesy of a closing round of 66.

Dubuisson and Langasque shared second place alongside China and the United States. Noren and Lingmerth combined for a closing 62 to finish shots five back for Sweden.

Kjeldsen and Olesen crowned what has been a great season for both players. They each finished in the top 20 of the Race to Dubai and Olesen extended his streak of winning seasons on the European Tour to three with victory at the Turkish Airlines Open.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9L0HPDKwrY

Denmark’s previous best finish at the World Cup of Golf had been in 2001, when Thomas Bjorn and Soren Hansen finished in a tie for second after losing in a play-off, and for Kjeldsen it was a first victory in his sixth outing, while Olesen was making his third appearance.

The winning pair were delighted with the victory and the quality of the golf they produced. “To win this beautiful trophy is amazing, and I think what’s so special about it is that we don’t get to lift a trophy with another player very often," said Kjeldsen. "So to experience that team feeling makes it even more special than an individual event. We have both had good years and to finish it off like builds the confidence hugely.”

Olesen said: “I had the feeling every time on the green that I really wanted to hole the putt, not just for me but for my partner too. Then all of a sudden on the back nine, they just started rolling in. It was not just for me, it was for Soren and me and our caddies and our country. That’s very special. When you hole a putt and you can fist pump with your partner and your caddies, it makes it a lot more fun. It was a real four man team this week. I thought both of our caddies did a tremendous job this week keeping us calm, and allowing us to play our game.”

Fowler was left to rue a number of missed opportunities. “We wanted to get off to a quick start and we knew we wanted to go out and play aggressively. We hit the shots, just didn’t get anything to go in early. So I felt like from tee to green, we didn’t really miss many shots. It’s always easier if you hit it a little bit closer, but really we just didn’t get the putts to go in early enough.”

Dubuisson has rediscovered his best form in recent weeks and loved the experience. “It was a great day. I think we couldn’t really do any better. To shoot nine under was a great score, because the pin positions were very difficult. Romain started the round really well, he made some very important putts on the first seven holes, which are very difficult. Then I made a good birdie on eight and we were four under. So I thought we had a good chance, but in the end we were a little bit short.”

Shane Lowry and Graeme McDowell were ninth for Ireland, nine behind the winners, England's Chris Wood and Andy Sullivan were joint 13th on nine under, Russell Knox and Duncan Stewart, of Scotland, recovered from a shocking opening round of 78 to finish 19th on six under, and Welsh pair Bradley Dredge and Stuart Manley were a further shot behind.

Aditi Ashok, an 18-year-old from India, won the Qatar Ladies Open just seven days after her maiden tournament victory at the Indian Open. Ashok putted out of her boots throughout a final round of 69, finishing by holing a 20-foot breaking putt on the 18th green to secure a three-shot victory. 

Wales's Lydia Hall shot a final three-under-par round of 69 to finish joint-second. The 28-year-old had shared the halfway lead but a disappointing third round of 72 saw her slip down the leaderboard. She rallied on the final day to share second, on 12 under, with Sweden's Caroline Hedwall, three behind Ashok.