SEA Games 31: Thailand won Gold Medal for the Women's Team Event
- SEA Games 31
- 1 year ago
The first team to put their name in the final was Malaysia. An unexpected situation happened in the match between Mirabel Ting Ern Hui (Malaysia) and silver medalist of the women's individual, Singaporean golfer - Aloysa Mabutas Margiela Atienza. At first glance, it seemed like this match would be a piece of cake for Aloysa, especially when she took the lead 1 Up in the first hole. However, from the third hole, Mirabel had a breakthrough. She balanced out the score and got to 4 Up before finishing the front nine. The Malaysian golfer raised the score to 5 Up on the 13th hole and finished the match on the next hole with a result of 5&4.
Meanwhile, Jeneath Wong had a remarkable match when she turned the tables against Hailey Loh Suanne. From hole 1st to hole 13th, Wong was consistently being led by her opponent, before evening out the score from hole 14th. On the 16th hole par 3, while Wong had an excellent tee shot, her opponent hit the ball onto the rough. Although Suanne chipped the ball well and won par, Wong still had the upper hand with a 4-foot birdie putt to surpass and take the lead for the first time in the game.
On hole 17th, the game was brought back to the starting point when Susanne had a chip to hit the flag and scored a birdie. Up to this point, the Malaysian player only needed to keep the tie at the 18th hole to be able to bring the Malaysian team to victory. In the end, the game ended with another point for Malaysia as Wong had a good approach to the game to score the birdie that sealed the match.
Malaysia is going to have a face-off with Thailand, who was qualified for the Final with Natthakritta Vongtaveelap's playoff victory over Indonesia's Lois Kaye Go Lo.
In the previous match, eventhough Vongtaveelap defeated Rianne Mikhaela Malixi Aala, but this wasn’t an easy task. Her opponent did not go down without a fight, Mikhaela fought fiercely and was even got to 1 Up ahead on the 4th and 14th hole. However, Vongtaveelap's competence was confirmed once again when she won 3 holes consecutively from 15 to 17 to end the match with a result of 2&1.
Meanwhile, Lois Kaye Go Lo had a convincing victory against Eila Galitsky with the result 3&1 to then had a playoff match with Thailand. The playoff match was brought to the 9th hole par 5, Vongtaveelap had very strong long games and was able to hit the ball on the green with only 2 strokes and quickly ended the match. Unfortunately, her second shot landed in the bunker to the right of the green. However, Lo was unable to take advantage of that mistake and failed to hit the ball on the green after the third stroke. With her level of skill, Vongtaveelap excellently saved the ball from the bunker, had 2 putts, scored par and won the overall victory.
With this result, the team’s final at SEA Games 31st will be a rivalry between Thailand and Malaysia in both Men's and Women's event. The Women's Bronze Medal match will take place earlier between Singapore and the Philippines, while Singapore's men will play against Indonesia.
