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| Asia-Pacific Amateur Golf Team Championship |
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 2007 Nomura Cup Showcasing Leading Amateur Golfers. |
| 2007 Nomura Cup Preview |
| A digest of "APGC Newsletter September 2007" |
| The 2007 Nomura Cup is shaping up to be one of the best contests in the history of the championship and will showcase the leading amateur golfers in the region. |
Australia arguably enters the Cup as the favourite having won the last four Cups and again selecting a strong Team. Their team comprises Tim Stewart, Runner-up at this years British Amateur and 2006 Australian Amateur champion, Rick Kulacz, winner of a professional tournament (the NSW Open) in Australia late in 2006, quarter finalist at the 2007 British Amateur and 2007 Scratch Players Championship (USA) winner, 2007 Australian Amateur champion Rohan Blizzard and Andrew Dodt, member of the 2005 Nomura Cup Australian Team and the 2006 Malaysian Amateur champion.
But Australia will not have it there own way at Taiwan’s Sunrise Golf and Country Club. Leading the nations of challengers will be Korea, the current golf medalist from the Doha Asian Games and recently winners of the Neighbors Cup in Japan.
Bi-O Kim heads the team fresh from winning the individual title at the Neighbors Cup and being the leading amateur in the 2007 X-Canvas and Maekyung Opens. He is joined by the 2007 Korean Amateur Champion Yeong-Su Kim, Woo-Hyun Kim, and the leading amateur from the 2006 Korean Open, Seung-Yul Noh.
The Japanese Team is also strong and includes Yuki Ito, who played in the 2005 Nomura Cup and was a member of the 2006 Asia-Pacific Team at the Bonallack Trophy. He is joined by Yuki Usami-Bronze Medalist at the 2007 World University Games, Naoyuki Tamura-Runner-up at this years Japan Amateur and Shunsuke Sonoda who finished in the top 4 at the Japan Amateur.
India has selected two players (Joseph Chakola and Anirban Lahiri) from the Silver Medal winning Asian Games team and they are joined by two younger players who have recorded significant victories over the last two years. Rabul Bakshi won the 2006 All Indian Amateur while Chikkaoangappa won the 2006 South, East and All India Junior Championships.
The 2005 runners-up, New Zealand, will arrive at Sunrise with all their team members in good form. James Gill won the 2007 NZ Stroke Play, 2007 Turkish Amateur and has finished in the top five in 2007 in international championships in the USA, Singapore, Greece and Italy. Danny Lee has achieved three excellent results in the USA being runner-up at the Callaway World Junior and Dogwood Invitational while he placed 5th at the US Public Links. Nick Gillespie was runner-up at the 2007 NZ Amateur and Troy Ropiha runner-up at the NZ Stroke Play.
The local Chinese Taipei Team will also present strong opposition and retain three members of their 2005 Nomura Cup Team.
These include 2007 Taiwan Amateur Golf Champion Ming-Chuan Chen, Chen-Chih Chiang who finished third at this year’s Malaysian Amateur and played in last years Asian Games and Shih-Chang Chan, the 2004 Hong Kong Amateur Champion and winner of the 2007 Faldo Series qualifying in Taiwan. They are joined by 16 year old Tao Huang who is having an outstanding year with top 5 finishes in both the Asia-Pacific and World Junior Championships.
In total a record entry of 18 nations are competing at Sunrise with other nations including Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Fiji, Guam, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and for the first time a team from Mongolia.
Some of the players in these teams bring outstanding form to Sunrise so we can expect to see some great golf. The only disappointing aspect of the championship is the absence of three players.
Local 16 year-old Cheng-Tsung Pang, the silver medalist at the Asian Games, is unavailable due to commitments in the USA as is Singaporean pair Tze Huang Choo and Jonathan Leong. While these players will be missed by their respective countries, their absence does not detract from the excellent field that will be at Sunrise and we can expect some outstanding amateur golf in Taiwan.
A digest of "APGC Newsletter September 2007" |
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