South Africa saw a four-stroke lead disappear before coming back to clinch the Women’s World Amateur Team Championships on a count-out from defending champions Sweden on Saturday.
The final group arrived at the last hole at the De Zalze course with the match all square. South Africa’s Kelli Shean and Sweden’s Caroline Westrup both made par and the teams were tied on 10-under-par 566.
The Espirito Santo trophy was decided on a count-out. The first tie-breaker was the non-counting third score in the best two to count format. That was also a tie, with South Africa’s Stacy Bregman and Swedes Anna Nordqvist and Sofie Andersson having shot 75.
It went to the best non-counting third-round score, where Ashleigh Simon’s 73 beat Andersson’s 77.
”It’s awesome,” said South Africa’s Simon after South Africa’s first world amateur team title. The country’s previous best finish was a tie for second in 1974.
Her teammate Kelli Shead added: ”We were all crying at the end. Winning it in our home country was very special because we’ve all got our families here sharing it with us. We wanted to prove we were world class. I think we performed outstandingly.”
South Africa captain Sandra Winter defended the tiebreak system. ”I think the system’s fair,” she said. ”It’s a team event and in the end the whole team’s scores mattered.”
Colombia finished strongly to climb into third place on 567 with Caroline Llano shooting a best-of-the-day 66. France were fourth on 568, with Germany and Japan tied for fifth a further stroke back.
Swedish coach Katarina Vangdal said: ”It’ll take a few hours to sink in. The players did really well to come back the way they did.”
Asked whether she thought the tiebreak system was fair, she said: ”Those are the rules. There’s nothing we can do about that.”
Westrup, who had the best individual total for the tournament, shot a final-round 69, while the 75s of the other two players gave Sweden a final round 144.
South Africa stumbled to 148, the worst total of the leading 13 finishers, with Shean and Simon both shooting 74.
Shean, 19, was a central figure in the final day’s drama. She made a bad start, dropping three strokes in the first four holes, but had a run of four consecutive birdies at the start of the back nine before dropping three more strokes.
She was told on the last hole that a tie would earn South Africa a win. ”I was pretty nervous,” she admitted of her final two-footer, ”because I had missed a few short putts on the previous holes. But I was determined to get it in.”
Japan, who had led after the first round, could not improve their position. The slightly built Rikaka Morita, 16, who led the individual standings by three strokes going into the last round, closed with a 75 to finish on 282, two behind Westrup.
The world men’s amateur team championships start on Thursday over the same two courses, De Zalze and Stellenbosch, that were used for the women’s event. — Sapa-AFP