HK Men’s Team Finish in Top Half of World Amateur Team Championship A recap of Hong Kong Men’s and Women’s team performances at the World Amateur Team Championship and 2018 Asian Games. Photography by Hong Kong Golf Association
Yoshihiro Nishi (middle), President of HKGA, accepts the transfer of the next World Amateur Team Championship tournament to Hong Kong in 2020 with Danny Lai (left) and Kenneth Lam (right), CEO and Vice President of HKGA
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WORLD AMATEUR TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS, IRELAND The Men’s team produced a Hong Kong Leon D’Sousa f ired 73-76 -72- 66 (-3 career-best finish at 32nd from 72 teams at total) over the two courses at Carton House, the World Amateur Team Championship in Dublin to be Hong Kong’s leading player. “It Ireland. It is the biggest amateur team event was a great experience in Ireland. I finished in the world and is held bi-annually, with with a career best 9-hole in an international players like Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm tournament with -6 for the back nine on and Jordan Spieth having played in recent day 4 to finish with a 66 on the tougher tournaments. Hong Kong will be hosting the Montgomerie course. I look for ward to event in 2 years’ time in 2020. coming back to A sia to play in t he A P
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championship in Singapore at the beginning of October,” said Leon. Terrence Ng shot 73-75-70-72 (level par total). In this tournament, 2 scores from 3 of each team are used each day. A lso, Terrence’s score was used by the team for all four days. It is Terrence’s joint best total score (level par) in a 4-round international event, which capped off an excellent week for him. Matthew Cheung also made a valuable contribution to the team with scores of 75-7172-73 (+1 total). A great team performance and a perfect platform for Hong Kong to host this prestigious championship in 2020. The Women’s team finished 34th from 57 teams - a good achievement to shoulder the loss of star player Tiffany Chan. Mimi Ho fared the best with rounds of 74-71-80-68 (+3 total). She was buzzing after her last round of 5 under par. Michelle Cheung had 7 birdies in her first round of 69 and followed this up with rounds of 78-79-73. After a great Asian Games week, Isabella Leung struggled in Ireland with scores of 78-78-83-75.
best golfers in Asia. The best individual result was from Isabella Leung who fired rounds of 74-76-71-67 (level par) to finish 15th in the individual event. “My first AG experience was unforgettable - the entire event was smooth and well run. To compete amongst the best golfers in Asia whilst representing HK was an honour I’ll always cherish. To be able to play some of my career best golf in this environment gives me a lot of confidence,” said Isabella. The Women’s team finished 10th with Michelle Cheung scoring 7975-75-72 and Mimi Ho 78-71-77-74. The Men’s tea m f i n ished 11t h from 20 countries and consisted of four players: Ben Wong (73-72-72-74), Matthew Cheung (75-7776-76), Terrence Ng (77-73-76-77) and Jonathan Lai (77-73-71-74). Ben is a Hong Kong amateur based in the U.S. who has broken into the top 100 in the World Rankings - an outstanding achievement. The players were challenged by the thick rough around the greens but produced solid performances, especially from Jonathan Lai, who combines playing golf with a job as an insurance consultant.
2018 ASIAN GAMES, JAKARTA, INDONESIA For the first time, Hong Kong was able to field both Men’s and Women’s team in an Asian Games. It was a great honour for the players to be selected and compete with the
The HK Men’s and Women’s team at the 2018 Asian Games – from left to right: Captain Tim Tang, Matthew Cheung, Terrence Ng, Jonathan Lai, Ben Wong, Michelle Cheung, Mimi Ho, Isabella Leung and Jon Wallett
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