World Amateur Teams Championship begins in Abu Dhabi
The 2016 winning Australian side – can Australia win for a fifth time? – photo WATC
Australia and New Zealand are amongst the 36 teams contesting this week’s World Amateur Team Championship at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club in the United Arab Emirates, the Australians chasing a fifth win in the event and New Zealand a second.
Australia last won in 2016 when Curtis Luck, Harrison Endicott and Cam Davis won in Mexico, Luck having also won the US Amateur title that year. Davis would also be the individual champion in Mexico.
New Zealand’s one and only win came in Canada in 1992 when Phil Tataurangi. Michael Campbell, Grant Moorhead and Stephen Scahill defeated the USA in Vancouver.
The Australian team consists of former Perth golfer and now Stanford University attendee, Karl Vilips, Sydney’s Jeffrey Guan and South Australian Jack Buchanan.
Vilips is a former Southern Amateur Champion in the US, a golf medallist at the 2018 Youth Olympics and played this year’s US Open in Los Angeles after successfully negotiating the qualifying process.
The New Zealand team is current Australian Amateur and Western Amateur (US) Champion Kazuma Kobori from Rangiora in Canterbury, Sam Jones from Mania in Taranaki and Jayden Ford from the Judgeford Golf Club in Wellington.
The event consists of 72 holes of strokeplay with the leading two of three scores each day to determine the team total.
This week’s event will be followed next week by the Espirito Santo Cup for women.
Kazuma Kobori heads New Zealand side – photo Australian Golf Media
