Sports

World Amateur Team Championship: USA lift Eisenhower Trophy

USA won the 33rd Eisenhower Trophy after ending second in the previous edition

23 Oct 2023 10:29

The United States team surged to its 16th Eisenhower Trophy win, and its first since 2014, at the 33rd World Amateur Team Championship at Abu Dhabi Golf Club on Sunday. Going into the final day with a four-shot lead, the winners turned on the screws ruthlessly to firmly seal the title without any competition from the other nations.

Norway and Australia took the consolation of coming in second and third among a field of 92 countries. The three-member teams were pitted at the National Course for four days with the best two out of the three scores of playing members counted on towards the tally.

Team USA's overall tally was 36-under-par 540, their 11-shot victory margin being the largest since Australia's 19-stroke win in 2016.

The first three days saw Gordon Sargent and Nick Dunlap leading the way for USA. However, their teammate David Ford decided to step up and he did it in some style. Ranked as No 5 amateur in the world, he posted an 8-under 64, while 2023 US Amateur champion Dunlap contributed a 4-under 68.

Ford rattled off four consecutive birdies followed by an eagle hole-out from 140 yards on the par-4 sixth. The Americans quickly established an eight-shot cushion midway through the opening half of the round.

"I've never been 6-under through six before," said Ford, who carded a 29 on the front nine holes. "I didn't look at the leaderboard until about hole 13. I wanted to see where we were and then I just tried to make as many birdies as I could coming in."

Ford's 64 is the second-lowest individual final round score in World Amateur Team Championship history.
After struggling to get things going early on, Dunlap birdied six of his final 10 holes, leading to his 68. Sargent posted a non-counting 71. The trio had competed together on last month's victorious USA Walker Cup team at St Andrews.

"It feels sweet," Ford said later. "We know each other really well. We all got to share in winning the Walker Cup so to represent our country well again here means the world."

"I love the fact that everybody contributed just about equally," said USA's non-playing captain Newell. "They all carried the team for stretches and they all ended up shooting about the same scores overall. A true team effort and exactly the kind that it takes to win this kind of event."

The team finished second, behind Italy, at the tournament's previous staging in France. Referring to that, Sargent said: "I played last year [at the WATC in France] and obviously we didn't finish the way we wanted to. That kind of stung standing there on the podium looking up at the guys who won, so it was nice to come here and get the job done."

Australia used a strong finish by Jack Buchanan (4-under 68), who birdied four of his final five holes, and a counting score from Karl Vilips (2-under 70) to close at 25-under-par 551.

Norway's silver is its first medal in the country's 26 Eisenhower appearances. The Norwegians, whose previous best finish was fourth place in 2022, used a 3-under 69 from Herman Sekne and a 2-under 70 from Michael Mjaaseth for a team total of 551.

France finished a stroke behind in fourth, followed by New Zealand for tied fifth.

Meanwhile, the individual honours went to New Zealand's Kazuma Kobori who came out with four sub-par rounds to finish 16-under for the tournament, one less than Dunlap. The next edition of the biennial tournament will be held in Singapore. Abu Dhabi played hosts as the first country in the Middle East to do so in the tournament's history.