Sunday at the PGA Four Nations Cup 2022 was a one-round shoot out, where 12-points were up for grabs. The match play format consisted of each player in the group playing the other three, so it was a challenging competition to stay ahead of. However, the player who shot the best score in the group was going to pick up the most points.
 
At the start of the day, the South Africa team had 12pts, Canada 10.5pts, Australia 8.5pts and New Zealand 5pts. Even though the NZ team was a long way back, it was possible for them to win if all the stars aligned. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to happen, but the Canadian team did get the job done, picking up 9.5pts to get a combined 20pts over the 3-days.
 
The Australian team rocketed into 2nd place, finishing on 16pts (picking up 7.5pts), the South African team held on for third but were only able to pick up 4pts on the day, whilst the NZ team had a tidy 5pts gain, taking them to 10pts overall.
 
For the New Zealand team, Pieter Zwart lead out and managed a win and two halves, Jared Pender produced two wins and a loss, Dongwoo Kang had one win and two losses and Brad Shilton struck some hot golfers and unfortunately lost his three matches. Two Australian golfers (Jamie Hook and TJ King) and one Canadian golfer (Gord Burns) gained the maximum 3pts from the three matches.
 
Overall, the tournament was a huge success! The format, the camaraderie amongst the teams and the organisation of the event, was all excellent. The four PGA’s are looking forward to next year’s event, which will be hosted by the Australian PGA in September 2023 at a venue as yet to be decided.
 
The bar has indeed been set very high by our South African PGA friends.
 
Congratulations to Pieter, Jared, Brad and Dongwoo who represented the NZPGA with great passion, energy and pride. Unfortunately, they just couldn't get the putts to drop this week!
 
Thanks also to Mignon Zwart and Chloe Pender who did a lot of the organising behind the scenes for the team. The clubs are now put away as the team get to enjoy some great South African hospitality before the long trip home!