Korea wins Women’s World Amateur Team Championship again

Korea withstood a 7-under-par charge from Germany, which finished second, taking the silver medal at 566. Finland, which also shot seven under for the day, shared the bronze medal with Australia at 567.

Spain and New Zealand tied for fifth at 568. New Zealand captain Libby Steele summed up Korea’s win: “They have fresh players every time and they just keep producing good golfers. It shows when you see them on all the Tours around the world.” Although there is no official recognition, Lydia Ko, 15, of New Zealand, No.1 in the WAGR, set a championship mark for lowest individual score at 14-under-par 274. Ko, the reigning U.S. Women’s Amateur champion and winner of the LPGA Tour’s Canadian Open, broke the mark set in 2010 by Korea’s Jung-Eun Han at 275. If Ko’s playing partners could have brought in a level par round on each day, New Zealand could have won the event with her amazing score!

The upper half of the draw played at Gloria Golf Club’s New Course in the fourth round and the lower half played the Old Course. This meant that the South African team had to do battle again with the more difficult Old Course and the South Africans could only manage a team score of +7 for the final round. This put the South African team in 35th position on +28 at the conclusion of the tournament, one shot ahead of hosts Turkey. WGSA President, Cynthia Rayner, said “The team is very disappointed as they were really well prepared for the event and each member had worked exceptionally hard. It’s seriously bad luck when all the girls are unable to drop their putts. The tournament was won on the greens, and even the Koreans complained that the greens were difficult to read. All we can do now is hope that the young, talented South African men’s team will make our country proud.”

Pictured above: The South African team of Kim Williams, Alana van Greuning and Bertine Strauss with mascot Luke before the final round at WATC

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