Danes deserved World Cup winners

 

 

Soren Kjeldsen and Thorbjorn Olesen blew the ISPS Handa World Cup at Kingston Heath apart with a 2nd round 62, and stayed focused from there on to win Denmark’s first World Cup title by four shots with a four round total of -20.

Danny Lee and Ryan Fox will be ruing three late bogeys in the 3rd round foursomes, just as they seemed to be mounting a decent charge.  At one stage they were sitting T3, but slipped back from there and had too much ground to make up in the final round.  Just the same, they both pocketed $US 105,000 for a T11 finish which represents a fair week’s work, particularly for Ryan who has been battling all year for the smaller purses on the European Challenge Tour.  Both will now go on to the Australian PGA Championship at Royal Pines this week.

Pettigrew secures Australian Seniors

Martin Pettigrew has recently turned 50, and had his first start on the Legends Tour in the Australian PGA Seniors Championship at Mollymook Hilltop Golf Course in NSW. Not a bad way to start – with rounds of 72, 72 and 70, Martin recorded a three shot victory over seasoned Legends player David Merriman.  The winning cheque of $A 12,600 could well be the biggest he has secured to date.  Martin combines play on the PGA NZ tournament circuit, where he currently sits 13th on the OOM, with an offshore chemical engineering job.  He will no doubt be looking to plunder more loot on the 2017 Legends Tour, as well as continuing to play with the younger brigade, where he is still very competitive.

LPGA European Tour

Cathryn Bristow made the long trip to Qatar for the Qatar Ladies Open last weekend, eventually finishing T47 on +3, well behind the winner Aditi Ashok of India, who won with a four round score tally of -15.  Cathryn has had a difficult time putting together a regular playing schedule in 2016, so let’s hope this talented New Zealand professional has more luck in 2017.

Japan Tour

The second last event of the season was the Casio World Open – ironically taking play on the same week as the World Cup – and it was won comfortably by Yuta Ikeda on -13.  Not far behind was 2016 NZ PGA Champion Brad Kennedy, who finished tied 4th for a handy cheque of around $NZ 80,000.  In doing so, he moved slightly ahead of Michael Hendry to lie 10th on the OOM with earnings of around $NZ 730,000.  Hendry is a handful of Yen behind in 11th place, but will be focused on another OOM this week: the PGA Tour of Australasia.  More on this in our preview of the Australian PGA Championship shortly.