Singh doesn't allow Spaniards to spoil his day
The crowd sang happy birthday to Jeev Milkha Singh as he reached the first tee. He bowed, acknowledged them and said he felt like a 21-year-old, not 41. However, his rivals Jose Maria Olazabal and Miguel Angel Jimenez, golden oldies as they are, played like 20somethings and threatened to spoil his party. It all came down to the 18th hole and Singh's young partner Kiradech Aphibarnrat, who had a chance to salvage the half point. The Thai buckled under the pressure and hit the lip of the cup for bogey. In stepped Singh, and coolly slotted the ball home to the relief of the home crowd surrounding the green. There was another chorus of "Happy Birthday" as they cheered the Indian.
It was a welcome half a point for a resurgent Asian team that showed they have plenty of fight left in them after claiming three points to edge closer to Europe. The Europeans, with a 4 ½-3/12 lead, still hold the whip hand going into the final day of the Royal Trophy at the Empire Hotel and County Club.
"Kiradech is a very young and talented player. He has got a lot of game in him. He hung in there," said a supportive Singh yesterday. "It was nice to hear the crowd singing happy birthday. They might not have bothered if I had missed on 18!" With eight singles to be played on the final day, Asian captain Naomichi Osaki is not giving up hope. He feels his young team has the winning DNA to upset their rivals' apple cart. "We showed we can fight. With some luck, we could have had a clean sweep. But I will take this score and hope for the best tomorrow," the Japanese said.
The heroes of the day for the Asians were the consistent South Korean duo of KT Kim and YE Yang. They were given the orders to stop the bandwagon of Henrik Stenson, a fantastic match-play exponent, and Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano.
They needed a fast start and Yang conjured up an eagle two on the first hole and hit four more birdies on the next four to take the breath away of the Europeans, who clearly were on life support after being five down at the turn.
The small break proved fruitful for Stenson and the Spaniard as they pulled up their socks and whittled down the lead to just one with the last two holes remaining to be played. Kim shut the door by hitting a gem of an approach shot on the 17th and birdied the hole to sew up the match. "KT was wonderful today and all year long. We play very well together and we wanted to make a quick start and we did that precisely and put pressure on our rivals," Yang said.
"Holing my second shot on the first hole probably gave a lift to the whole Asian team. When KT holed his approach on two we could not believe we had both done it on the same day," said the former PGA Champion. Yoshinori Fujimoto and Ryo Ishikawa stepped up their game when Asia needed it most by winning holes 15, 16 and 17 to pull the rug from under the feet of Molinari brothers, Edoardo and Francesco, 3 and 1. It appeared as if the teams would square the points but the Japanese duo had other ideas, ambushing their rivals with Ishikawa's eagle on 15 and birdies on the last stretch.
Rookie Fujimoto was flawless, firing seven birdies while Ishikawa had an eagle, five birdies and two bogeys to the chagrin of Italians.
Bae Sang-moon and Wu Ashun looked set to get Asia their third point but Nicolas Colsaerts had other intentions. The Belgian, who is turning out to be a great matchplay player, shot a birdie from a sizeable distance to break the hearts of the Asian duo on the last hole.
"Bae played great for the whole round. It is 'only' a half point but the team we faced was very strong and we can be happy with our performance," said Wu. The half point from Colsaerts and Marcel Siem, who discovered his much-vaunted form from the eighth hole, was a breath of relief for captain Olazabal, who was bothered by pain in the neck after teeing off from the first hole and had to be attended to by a physiotherapist by the side of the sixth tee.
That did not stop the Spaniard from downing two monstrous putts and taking the fight to the rival camp.
Results
Asia 3 ½ vs Europe 4 ½
Jeev Milkha Singh and Aphibarnrat v Jose Maria Olazaba and Miguel Angel Jimenez, all square;
Bae Sang-moon and Wu Ashun v Nicolas Colsaerts and Marcel Siem, all square;
YE Yang and KT Kim bt Henrik Stenson and Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, 2 1
Yoshinori Fujimoto and Ryo Ishikawa bt Francesco Molinari and Edoardo Molinari, 3 1
Match schedule today
Singles match
Match tee-off time Asian Team European Team
11.10am Bae Sang-moon VS Jose Maria Olazabal
11.20 Kiradech Aphibarnrat VS Nicolas Colsaerts
11.30 KT Kim VS Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano
11.40 Yoshinori Fujimoto VS Marcel Siem
11.50 Wu Ashun VS Edoardo Molinari
12.00 Jeev Milkha Singh VS Miguel Angel Jimenez
12.10pm Ryo Ishikawa VS Henrik Stenson
12.20pm YE Yang VS Francesco Molinari
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Article source: http://www.thethailandlinks.com/2012/12/16/korean-japanese-pairs-lead-way/
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