08/07/2009

Laval-sur-le-Lac, Que. (RCGA) – Team Canada won two of three morning foursome matches and five of six afternoon singles matches against Australia to win the 2009 Four Nations Cup in Laval-sur-le-Lac, Que.

The convincing team victory marked the second time Canada has won the prestigious international event and first since winning in 2001 on home soil at Lambton Golf and Country Club in Toronto. For team captain Derek Ingram, the victory was a culmination of team chemistry and stellar play throughout the championship.

           

“The boys all played terrific golf and are absolutely pumped to win this event,” said Ingram, assistant coach of Canada’s national amateur team. “To come in and beat a team like Australia that has dominated this event over the years is a true measure of how well our guys competed. The whole team played so well consistently throughout the event and I can’t say enough how proud I am to see them win the title.”

In morning foursome action, Canada and Australia squared off in the event’s marquee matchup with Canada winning two of three morning contests. Eugene Wong and Darren Wallace got the team started with a 4&3 victory over Daniel Beckmann and Lester Peterson while Nick Taylor and David Markle edged out Brendan Smith and Jordan Sherratt 1-UP. Matt Jager and Matt Giles got the aussie’s on the board with a 2-UP victory over Matt Hill & Lindsay Renolds.

In the afternoon singles matches, Canadians Nick Taylor (3&2), Matt Hill (6&5), Lindsay Renolds (4&3), Eugene Wong (7&6) and David Markle (2-UP) were all victorious while Darren Wallace squared his match with Australian counterpart Lester Peterson.

For Taylor, the world’s top ranked amateur, team chemistry played a huge role in the team’s successful showing.

“Canada has only won the event one other time and Australia has pretty much been the team to beat so it feels pretty special to win it,” said Taylor. “All week, it was just so great to be around the guys; we spent a lot of time together and we were all rooting each other on in our matches so coming together the way we did has just been an awesome experience.”

On the other side of the draw, Japan took two of three morning matches and 4 ½ of six afternoon singles matches against New Zealand to win the point and capture third place honours.

Team Canada won 7 ½ of nine total final round matches against Australia to claim their third and decisive point of the tournament. The Canucks proved to be the dominant team of the championship winning 23 of 27 total matches over the three-day competition.

DAY 3 RESULTS - MORNING FOURSOME MATCHES

CANADA vs AUSTRALIA
Eugene Wong & Darren Wallace vs Daniel Beckmann & Lester Peterson CAN 4&3
Matt Hill & Lindsay Renolds vs Matt Jager & Matt Giles AUS 2-UP
Nick Taylor & David Markle vs Brendan Smith & Jordan Sherratt CAN 1-UP

NEW ZEALAND vs JAPAN
Scott Johnson& Thomas Spearman-Burn vs Satoshi Kodaira & Tomoharu Otsuki JPN 2&1
Daniel Pearce & Peter Spearman-Burn vs Shingi Tomimura & Yutaro Kuga NZ 2&1
Ryan Fox & Ben Wallace vs Yuki Usami & Keisuke Otawa JPN 3&2

DAY 3 RESULTS - AFTERNOON SINGLES MATCHES

CANADA vs AUSTRALIA
Eugene Wong vs Jordan Sherratt CAN 7&6
Darren Wallace vs Lester Peterson ALL SQUARE
Lindsay Renolds vs Brendan Smith CAN 4&3
Dave Markle vs Daniel Beckmann CAN 2-UP
Matt Hill vs Matt Jager CAN 6&5
Nick Taylor vs Matt Giles CAN 3&2

NEW ZEALAND vs JAPAN
Scott Johnson vs Yutaro Kuga JPN 1-UP
Thomas Spearman-Burn vs Shingi Tomimura NZ 2&1
Daniel Pearce vs Tomoharu Otsuki ALL SQUARE
Ryan Fox vs Satoshi Kodaira JPN 2&1
Peter Spearman-Burn vs Keisuke Otawa JPN 5&4
Ben Wallace vs Yuki Usami JPN 1-UP

TEAM TOTAL SCORING

CANADA 3 points (23 of 27 matches won)
AUSTRALIA 2 points (13 of 27 matches won)
JAPAN 1 points (12 of 27 matches won)
NEW ZEALAND 0 points (6 of 27 matches won)

(Team total points earned by winning at minimum 5 of 9 daily matches)

Now in its 12th playing, the Four Nations Cup is a team competition between Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand played bi-annually since 1987. Historically, Australia has won the event all but twice, having been defeated by Japan in 1997 and Canada in 2001. Team Canada claimed victory at the event in 2001 on home soil at Lambton Golf & Country Club in Toronto.

The three-day, round-robin match play event used a Ryder Cup style format with daily matches against each country consisting of three foursomes (alternate shot) matches in the mornings and six singles matches in the afternoons.