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13th World University Golf Championship

Málaga, Spain - June 7th to 11th, 2010

Gold to Gerard Piris Mateu (ESP) and Catherine O’Donnell (USA)

One hundred and thirty five student golfers teed off on Tuesday June 8th in the 13th World University Golf Championship at Antequera Golf in Antequera, near Malaga, Spain, a stunning course in the mountains above the city. The Organising Committee had the course presented in superb condition and the narrow fairways and small greens put a premium on accuracy and pitching and putting which provided an excellent test of golf for all participants.

53 women started in the morning and the golf was of an impressively high standard with Giulia Molinaro of Italy and Morgane Bazin de Jessey from France both returning one under par scores of 71. Both had four birdies in their round with Giulia taking 36 strokes on the first nine holes and 35 on the last 9 while Morgane had 35 out and 36 back.

In the team event Giulia Molinaro was assisted by Anna Roscio with 73 to give Italy the lead in the team event with a total of 144 from Chinese Taipei whose Li-Chen Chang had 72 and Ke-Hui Hsu had 73 for 145. France are in third place as Margot Coulaud Ivanoff added a 75 to Morgane Bazin de Jessey’s 71 for a team score of 146 and these three teams are 5 shots clear of the chasing pack.

The wind got up later in the afternoon to add to the challenge for the 82 male participants. Despite this 7 players managed the conditions very well to break Par, the best of which was Garrett Rank from Canada who was 5 under Par at one stage but eventually finished on a 4 under Par 68.

As in the Ladies event the three leading teams are only separated by a slender margin with Chinese Taipei leading with 71’s from Hung and Huang and a 73 from Hsieh for a total of 215. Spain and Canada are tied for second on 216 with Spain having 71, 72 and 73 and Canada 68, 73 and 75.

On June 9th, the Championship entered the second round and many of the leaders enhanced their chance of a medal with good returns in favourable weather.

The Low Score for the day was 68 from Jung-Dae Park of Korea who had 33 on the front nine and 35 back for a round of 68. Garett Rank from Canada continued his good run of form with a 69 for a two round total of 137 which included 4 birdies and an eagle but also a double bogey. Chung-Hang Hung had five birdies in his round of 69 and a total for two days of 140. Gerard Piris Mateau and Antonio Hortal Ochoa, both from Spain, were the other low scores of the day each with 69.

Ambroise Fourquet of France had the first Hole-in-One of the Championship at the 196 yard Par 3 fourth hole.

In the Team event Spain have swapped places with Chinese Taipei for Golf medal position with Chinese Taipei and Canada tied for second and Korea moving up into fourth place.

The women started in the afternoon and had to contend with heavy rain which made scoring very difficult and much higher than on the first day. Only Catherine O’Donnell of USA managed to break par with an excellent round of 70 and an overall total of 145 but the first day leader Morgane Bazin de Jessey from France returned a one over par 73 to maintain her lead by one shot in the individual Championship with a total of 144. Giulia Molinaro of Italy, the joint leader on day one, slipped down the field with an 84 and also affected Italy’s chance of a medal in the Team event dropping them to fifth place. France has moved into a 7 shot lead from Chinese Taipei with Spain and USA moving into the Bronze medal position.

The 3rd round of the Championship took place June 10th, with the women teeing off from 8.00 a.m. The weather was cool and a little overcast but much better than the very unpleasant conditions they experienced yesterday.

The scoring was much improved and the best scores of the day were from O’Donnel (USA), Hsu (TPE) and Garcia (ESP) all marking 71. Catherine O’Donnell’s 71 enabled her to move into Gold medal position ahead of Morgane Bazin de Jessey of France who had led from the first round. However it would appear that the Gold medal battle may well between these two players as those in Bronze medal position are 11 shots behind the American player.

The American Team Coach, Diane Thomason must have been disappointed that she left O’Donnell out of the USA Team as they would now be in the lead in the Team event. However, that honour went to Team France instead who maintained its Golf medal position from Spain in Silver and USA in Bronze. Despite the day’s equal best score from Ke-Hui Hsu, Chinese Taipei slipped back from second to fourth with the Italians retaining their 5th position.

In the Men’s Championship James White (Great Britain) and Jin-Jae Byun (Korea) shared the Championship low round with 5 under Par scores of 67. The under Par scores were completed by another Korean, three Japanese players and two Irish players. The difficulty of the course, where the need for accuracy is paramount as it is the fine line between success and failure, was clearly demonstrated when Garrett Rank (Canada), the leader for the first two days, returned a 10 over Par 82 to drop him down the field.

The excellent scores for Korea of 67 and 71 from Byun and Park saw them leapfrog from 4th to the Gold medal by the narrowest margin of 1 shot from Chinese Taipei who retain their second position. Japan’s team score of 209 saw them move from 7th into the Bronze medal position just 3 shots behind leaders Korea. Another example of the challenge of the Antequera Golf Course was seen when host country Spain, who were leading the Team event after two days, did not score well with a team total of 232, which was 20 shots worse than their second round score, and fell from 1st to 5th.

The final round of the Championship took place on June 11th to decide the medal winners of the 13th edition of this Championship with Spain winning Gold and Silver in the Men’s Individual event while Bronze went to Korea.

The two best rounds of the day were returned by Gerard Piris Mateu and Carlos Pigen Xammar of Spain with 68 and 69 respectively. This gave Gerard a total of 281 and a 7 shot win over his compatriot as well as Sung-Heak Park of Korea and, the leader from the third day, Yoshinori Fujimoto all on 288. Carlos took the Silver medal and Sung-Heak the Bronze on the better last day cards.

Gerard had 4 birdies and an eagle for 7 holes of his last nine and then dropped a shot at each of the last two holes or his score would have been even better.

There was a tremendously close battle for the medals in the Men’s Team event and it was only decided on the last hole. Korea took the Gold on a total of 869 by 3 shots from Japan on 872 who took the Silver from Spain by one shot on 873. Spain in turn won the bronze by just one shot from Chinese Taipei on 874.

The best scores of the day from the Women were returned by Hsu (TPE) and Anderson (USA), both hitting 71. Catherine O’Donnell’s 74 enabled her to win the Gold medal for USA on 290 ahead of Silver Medallist Morgane Bazin de Jessey of France on 292 and Bronze Medallist Ke-Hui Hsu of Chinese Taipei on 298.

In the Women’s Team competition, the medals went to France (gold), Chinese Taipei (silver) and USA (bronze).