Sweden world champ; Pinays 30th

Sweden edged the United States via tiebreak to win the 29th Women’s World Amateur Team Championship in France Saturday.

The Philippines settled for 30th place, 39 shots off the pace in the three-to-play, two-to-count team event.

The Swedes and the Americans tied on top of the leaderboard on 13-under 559 but clinched the crown for having the better non-counting score.

Meja Ortengren and Ingrid Lindblad powered the Swedes with 2-under par 70 and 69, respectively with Louise Rydqvist securing the title with a 73.

Ortengren went on to tie for first place in the individual division with Germany’s Helen Briem and American Rose Zhang on similar 7-under 279s.

Lindblad shared fourth on 280.

The Americans posted 140 in the final round through Zhang (69) and Rachel Heck (71) with Rachel Kuehn not counting with 74.

Zhang had lifted the US into the lead following a birdie on 17, but the reigning NCAA individual champion missed a seven-foot par-saving putt.

The final hole bogey dropped the Americans into a tie with Sweden, which won the gold-medal tiebreaker by a stroke.

“On that last putt, I actually hit a really good putt exactly where I wanted, but it just didn’t go in the hole. It was disappointing to end that way, but I am really proud of how we fought back on the last day.”

Germany and Japan tied for third on 12-under 560 while Spain was alone in fifth on 561.

Meanwhile, the Filipinas dropped two notches after closing with 151.

Mikhaela Fortuna was the country’s top performer, shooting a 71 to wind up joint 42nd on 8-over 294.

Lois Kaye Go counted with 79. Mafy Singson carded an 82.

Singson shared 106th on 25-over 311 while Go was in joint 113th on 313.

With report from golfchannel.com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *