Denmark Comes Back to Win Boys Division of 2018 TOYOTA Junior Golf World Cup Supported by JAL
TOYOTA CITY, Japan – Denmark (-23) shot a 10-under 203 to come from seven strokes back and win the Boys Division of the 2018 TOYOTA Junior Golf World Cup Supported by JAL in Toyota City, Aichi-Prefecture, Japan. It is Denmark’s first title in the 26-year history of the event. Third round leader Spain finished as the runner-up at minus-21 and Thailand (-19) came in third.
“We’ve been really looking forward to this week and knew we had a strong team coming in,” Denmark coach Martin Raal Kold said. “We had a bit of a rough day yesterday but the boys came back today and performed as well as we’d hoped. It was just enough to pull it off.”
Host Japan (-11) claimed the fourth spot while South Africa (-8) and Argentina (-1) also finished in the red. Mexico ended up at even par and moved into seventh – one shot ahead of eighth place Korea (+1). Sweden came in ninth at plus-3 while New Zealand (+5) and two-time defending champion United States (+7) checked in 10th and 11th - respectively. Italy (+8), Colombia (+12), Canada (+22) and Morocco (+48) rounded out the boys’ field.
Rasmus Højgaard of Denmark closed out the boys’ individual title at 16-under – four shots ahead of his twin brother Nicolai (-12). Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg took the third position at 10-under – one shot clear of fourth place finisher Bae Yongjun of Korea (-9).
South Africa’s Martin Vorster used a tournament record 61 (-10) in Friday’s final round to move into a fifth place tie with Eduard Rousaud Sabate of Spain at 8-under. Spaniard Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra Coto (-7) claimed the seventh spot while Ryo Hisatune of Japan (-6) finished eighth – two shots ahead of a tie for ninth between Argentina’s Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira and Arituj Winaicharoenchai of Thailand at minus-4.
In the Girls Division, Japan ran away with championship – finishing 10 strokes clear of second place Korea (-12) – at 22-under. No other team finished below par. Canada and Sweden tied for third at plus-2 – one stroke ahead of two-time defending champion United States (+3).
“We were very calm today,” Japanese captain Gentaro Hashida said. “We played well all four days and expected to do so. We have a very strong team and are proud to win the championship. The icing on the cake was all three players birdied their final hole.”
Colombia finished in sixth place at 9-over while New Zealand checked in seventh (+7). South Africa (+27) and Italy (+33) closed out the girls’ field.
Korea’s Lee Sujeong and Yuka Yasuda of Japan tied for the Girls Division individual trophy at 10-under. The other two Japanese participants - Yuna Nishimura (-9) and Ayaka Furue (-6) – finished third and fourth – respectively.
Canada’s Celeste Dao took the fifth spot at minus-5 – two shots ahead of sixth place Ingrid Lindblad of Sweden (-3). Korea’s Uhm Kyuwon (-2) was the final participant to finish below par in seventh place.
The 2018 TOYOTA Junior Golf World Cup Supported by JAL is the world’s only junior golf championship in which 24 national teams – winners of regional qualifiers held across six continents and participated in by more than 70 national teams – compete for the world championship.
For more information – including photographs and videos from the round – please visit www.wjgtc.org and follow the tournament’s official twitter account @WJGTC.
Live scoring of the 2018 TOYOTA Junior Golf World Cup Supported by JAL was provided by Golfstat. Please visit www.golfstat.com or the Golfstat app for additional information.
BOYS TEAM STANDINGS
1. Denmark 210-202-214-203 = 829 (-23)
2. Spain 203-209-207-212 = 831 (-21)
3. Thailand 210-210-209-204 = 833 (-19)
4. Japan 208-209-214-210 = 841 (-11)
5. South Africa 215-214-214-201 = 844 (-8)
6. Argentina 213-213-217-208 = 851 (-1)
7. Mexico 211-218-217-206 = 852 (E)
8. Korea 205-215-224-209 = 853 (+1)
9. Sweden 213-216-214-212 = 855 (+3)
10. New Zealand 221-213-211-212 = 857 (+5)
11. United States 216-221-217-205 = 859 (+7)
12. Italy 215-215-214-216 = 860 (+8)
13. Colombia 214-218-220-212 = 864 (+12)
14. Canada 218-223-223-210 = 874 (+22)
15. Morocco 215-223-240-222 = 900 (+48)
BOYS INDIVIDUAL STANDINGS
1. Rasmus Højgaard, Denmark 68-68-68-64 = 268 (-16)
2. Nicolai Højgaard, Denmark 65-68-72-67 = 272 (-12)
3. Ludvig Aberg, Sweden 67-71-69-67 = 274 (-10)
4. Bae Yongjun, Korea 67-69-72-67 = 275 (-9)
T5. Eduard Rousaud Sabate, Spain 70-70-67-69 = 276 (-8)
T5. Martin Vorster, South Africa 71-72-72-61 = 276 (-8)
7. Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra Coto, Spain 68-67-70-72 = 277 (-7)
8. Ryo Hisatune, Japan 68-71-66-73 = 278 (-6)
T9. Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira, Argentina 72-70-69-69 = 280 (-4)
T9. Arituj Winaicharoenchai, Thailand 72-66-74-68 = 280 (-4)
GIRLS TEAM STANDINGS
1. Japan 136-143-139-136 = 554 (-22)
2. Korea 140-138-146-140 = 564 (-12)
3. Canada 142-148-141-147 = 578 (+2)
4. Sweden 143-146-145-144 = 578 (+2)
5. United States 145-148-144-142 = 579 (+3)
6. Colombia 147-144-147-147 = 585 (+9)
7. New Zealand 144-152-153-144 = 593 (+17)
8. South Africa 150-154-148-147 = 603 (+27)
9. Italy 149-159-152-153 = 609 (+33)
GIRLS INDIVIDUAL STANDINGS
T1. Lee Sujeong, Korea 68-70-71-69 = 278 (-10)
T1. Yuka Yasuda, Japan 70-70-71-67 = 278 (-10)
3. Yuna Nishimura, Japan 68-74-68-69 = 279 (-9)
4. Ayaka Furue, Japan 68-73-72-69 = 282 (-6)
5. Celeste Dao, Canada 70-74-68-71 = 283 (-5)
6. Ingrid Lindblad, Sweden 70-72-71-72 = 285 (-3)
7. Uhm Kyuwon, Korea 72-68-75-71 = 286 (-2)
8. Sadie Englemann, United States 72-75-71-70 = 288 (E)
9. Maria Bohorquez Fonseca, Colombia 73-73-72-73 = 291 (+3)
10. Gina Kim, United States 73-74-73-72 = 292 (+4)