A crowd-pleasing weekend at storied Dalat Palace Golf Club concluded with a pair of teenagers hoisting first-place trophies for their record-setting performances.
A day after 15-year-old Ngo Bao Nghi repeated as winner of the 54-hole Vietnam Ladies National Championship, 19-year-old Wasin Sripattranusorn of Thailand claimed the Vietnam Amateur Open with a four-round total of 274 (14-under-par).
Wasin’s score was a tournament record, as was Nghi’s 224 (8-over-par). Yet neither went as low as Malaysia’s Mohd Iszaimi Bin Ismail, who fired a final-round 63 to set a course mark for 18 holes.
Wasin finished four shots ahead of runner-up Peter Villaber of the Philippines and five clear of Ismail, whose scintillating round included an astounding seven birdies and an eagle.
“I am very glad to win,” said Wasin, who flashed a huge smile after chipping in for birdie on the last hole. “I prepared a lot for this tournament. I stuck to a game plan -- like the world’s top 10 players do -- and it paid off.”
All the work Wasin put in leading up to the event showed especially down the stretch, where he answered Villaber’s birdies on holes 15 and 17 with a pair of his own.
“On 18, I was trying to chip it close but I got lucky and it went in,” he said.
Vietnam’s Trinh Van Tho had a successful Sunday, as well. The Ho Chi Minh City resident shot 69 to climb into eighth place overall. Countryman Andrew Hung Pham also finished in the top 10.
“This (year’s field) was the strongest field we’ve ever had, and the results prove that,” said tournament director Jeff Puchalski, of Fore Golf Asia. “The Vietnamese are getting a chance now to compete against the best in Southeast Asia. Seeing what level they need to play at makes them better players.”
The Vietnam Amateur Open and Vietnam Ladies National Championship have been held since their inceptions at Dalat Palace Golf Club, widely considered the country’s top course.
In its last four Planet Golf surveys, Golf Digest (USA) rated the course best in the country. Asian Golf Monthly readers have voted it No. 1 in Vietnam for three years running, too.
Gently crafted into the rolling hills of Dalat and overlooking the majestic Xuan Huong Lake, the club’s fairways weave through stately pine trees to oversized, undulating, bent-grass greens, a rarity in Southeast Asia.
P.V
Vietnamese
