France wins, Aussies slip at Eisenhower

BY Anthony Powter | Amateur Golf Tour | 2010 World Amateur Team Championships | Round Four | 01 Nov 2010

France has secured the World Amateur Team championship title with a 4 stroke winning margin over Denmark in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The French team of Johann Lopez-Lazaro, Alexander Levy and Roman Wattle combined to post a 7-under-par total with Denmark finishing runner-up at 3-under-par and United States of America finishing in 3rd position at 2-under-par.

Full credit is also to be given to the New Zealand team of Ben Campbell, Ryan Fox and Peter Spearman Burn with their stellar 4th place finish, New Zealand’s best finish in the Eisenhower Trophy since the Kiwi’s victory in 1992.

These World Amateur Team championships were plagued with poor weather conditions with torrential rain and lightning forcing organisers to modify the championship format, reducing the event to 54 holes.

The last two rounds in particular were punctuated with weather delays as strong winds and rain lashed the course making scoring extremely difficult and challenging.

The Australian team of Matt Jager, Kieran Pratt and Bryden Macpherson slipped from its opening round 6th place to record one of Australia’s worst results at these championships finishing in a tie for 26th position at 21-over-par, a massive 28 shots behind the French.

For a team that promised so much and look stunning on paper, the Australians delivered very little in Argentina.

Kieran Pratt was the best performer of the three man team, finishing at 11-over-par with rounds of 72-75-79 to be in a tie for 45th position in the individual standings. Given the conditions and the disruptions with the event, Pratt’s overall score was at least half respectable.

Matt Jager and Bryden Macpherson simply did not get their game into action at these championships and with a pending announcement of turning professional this week leading into the JBWere Masters in a fortnight in Melbourne, Jager would not have wanted to post scores in the 80’s which unfortunately have been occurring too often in his game of late.

Jager posted rounds of 71-80-83 to finish at 19-over-par and in a tie for 108th in the individual standings. Macpherson was no better opening with a disastrous 82, however, improved in the closing stages with rounds of 79-75 to be at 21-over-par and in a tie for 119th positions.

Macpherson’s closing 75 in challenging conditions was one of the better rounds for the final day, yet unfortunately it came too late for the Australians. Overall the Australians failed to combine well and this was shown in the team score.

These figures and results are not reflective of this Australian team’s talent and there are sure to be in-depth post-championship deliberations by the Australian authorities as to why a team of this nature finished in the position it did, well down the leader board.

Another question has again arisen about ’automatic’ selections into Australian teams, particularly when player’s form in the lead up into the an event is dubious. Too often the Australian team selection process has been applied far too early in the year and the timing fails to account for changes in team member’s form which often occur during the main US and UK amateur events.

The number one ranked player on the so-called “Golf Australia” rankings as when the team is announced automatically gains a position. This is at a time when very few world amateur ranking events have been played it gives a false sense of standing, both on the local and international arena, as to the ranking.

While the concept of automatic selection in principle has merit, in practice it appears not to be working, as shown in the last two occasions in World Amateur Team championships where selection standings with Australian teams have been looked upon with some degree scepticism with lacking any reality of current events at the time the World Amateur Championships is being held.

Players like Ryan McCarthy, Jordan Sherratt and Jason Scrivener secured solid international results leading up to the World Amateur championship, yet were left on the outside because of the process applied by the Australian sectors. In light of the very ordinary results in Argentina, automatic team selection and the timing of when a team is announced must be reconsidered by Golf Australia.

In the individual standings, Denmark’s Joachim Hansen secured the top spot finishing at 6-under-par and three strokes ahead of France’s Alexander Levy, who was a stroke ahead of fellow countryman, Romain Wattel.

New Zealand’s Ben Campbell played superb golf at these championships to finish in a very respectable tie for 4th at 1-under-par following rounds of 69-70-75.

Campbell was finalist this year at the Australian Amateur against Matt Jager, won the Tauranga Open in New Zealand and made the match play segment of the British Amateur. A tremendous talent, Campbell is one of the hottest talents to recently emerge on the world amateur stage.

It was the first occasion the French have won the World Amateur Teams championship and like the Scottish victory two years ago in Adelaide, another newcomer has made its way onto the world amateur stage. We can only hope that Australia will sometime in the future be up there with them.