Golf: Jones & Augustus Finish 11th
The Bermuda team of Nick Jones and Daniel Augustus have finished 11th in the Golf World Cup Qualifier held in Venezuela. During the tournament Mr Augustus was struck by severe food poisoning, however still managed to soldier on.
The 72-hole event, which awards three berths into the $7.5 million Omega Mission Hills World Cup, saw teams from Argentina, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay and Venezuela compete.
After the tournament concluded Bermuda Manager Alex Madeiros said, ” The last time that Bermuda qualified was in 1984. The qualifier was held at The Castle Harbour Resort in Bermuda. Bermuda’s team of Kim Swan and Keith Smith took full advantage of playing at home and went on to win the qualifier beating out the likes of Jamaica and Paraguay.
“After round one of this year’s qualifier I honestly thought we were about to see history. That was not to be and Bermuda will have to wait another two years before we have the opportunity to qualify again.
“What we do in those two years to prepare a team will be the question. Do we wait and simply send the best two players at the time and hope that they qualify or do we implement a program that will give our players the experience that is required to get the job done? This is the first time in a very long time that we, as an Association rallied behind our World Cup Team.
“With more players starting to play regularly in tournaments overseas, it will only be a matter of time before Michael Sims has company in the World Rankings.
“We learned a great deal this week, however we have to be realistic and look back at each day and figure out what we could have done differently. Round One was an amazing day for us. The guys played remarkable and were able to keep pace with the early leaders. Round Two, unfortunately was a nightmare and if it had not been for six holes, and a virus, I could be here writing a different report.
“However, what we failed to do was regain the momentum that we lost after round two. We had every opportunity to make amends and simply could not.
“We had the fortune of playing alongside the eventual winners Brazil in our second round. Now, unfortunately for us, Daniel Augustus had taken sick and our focus was not the same and this was a round of “could have been”. I watched Brazil intently and they played so brilliantly that I am not even sure if they made any mistakes.
“If they did, they covered it well. That level of play is where we need to be and can get to with the right amount of support. From hole eight through eighteen, Bermuda matched their Brazilian counterparts shot for shot but Brazil made the putts that needed to count. Brazil went onto win the qualifier with a 31 under par score. Absolutely amazing!
“Our third round was our opportunity to claw ourselves back into the tournament and it was this round that I speak of at the beginning of my report. We could not find a way to regain our momentum. We most certainly tried and the guys played their hearts out but you can see that it was an uphill battle and when putts that should have been made and chips that should have gone close do not, we begin to make mistakes that are hard to recover from.
“The final round was alternate shot and we badly wanted to prove that if we had been healthy, we could have made an impact. We did just that. The Alternate Shot format is tough. You cannot play your own game; you have to play your partner’s. Just because you like to flip wedges to the hole, does not mean that your partner does. He may prefer a much longer shot.
“Our guys did that beautifully, constantly communicating to each other what they wanted. As a result, we were eleven shots better on our opening nine compared to that in round two. As we made the turn at even par the guys decided to become very aggressive and to be honest I enjoyed this. Unfortunately, when you get aggressive you make shots that you normally do not and it is a risk/reward type of shot making.
“In the end, our risk did not give us any reward and we dropped three shots finishing at one under for the tournament. That was ok in the end as they gave it a go. We eventually finished in a tie for 11th.”
