Kuala Lumpur, Jan 14 (PTI) Team Europe finally foundtheir rhythm as they steamrolled Team Asia in the singlestoday to win the EurAsia Cup golf tournament for the secondtime in three editions.
Winning eight singles and halving another one, Europeemerged 8 ½ to 3 ½ winners in singles to complete a 14-10triumph at the Glenmarie Golf and Country Club.
Asia and Europe were Tied 10-10 in the first edition andthen Europe outplayed Asia 18 ½ to 5 ½ in 2016.
For Europe, the unbeaten players were Tommy Fleetwood andTyrell Hatton, who won all three matches, while Yuta Ikedawith three wins in three matches and Li Haotong with 2 ½points from three matches were unbeaten.
Beginning one point behind Team Asia, Europe racked upthree quick wins through Alex Noren (4&2 against NicholasFung), Rafa Cabrera-Bello (4&3 against Gavin Green) and TommyFleetwood (2&1 against SSP Chawrasia) to move ahead and werethen interrupted only by Poom Saksansin's shock defeat of PaulCasey 1-up.
Later on, Europe kept piling on the wins, through HenrikStenson, Bernd Wiesberger and Alex Levy. It was Thomas Pieterswho delivered the winning point and then Tyrell Hatton beatAnirban Lahiri for the eighth singles win for Europe.
Late in the day after the Cup had been decided, Asia didwin two more matches to make the score closer 10-14.
Team Asia captain, disappointed at losing, said, "Hey, noone likes a loss."He then added: "I am very proud, actually. They are agreat group of guys. They are all awesome players. It's justunfortunate that we ran into a buzzsaw today.
"You know, it was tough, with almost every match, wedidn't make enough putts. It looked like every time I watchedmy players, they were hitting the edges and it seemed likeEurope, every time I watched them, they were either chippingin or making a lot of birdies.
"It's tough to beat them when they are doing that. We arevery, very proud of every single one."On whether a change in order of the players he fieldcould have put some pressure on Europe, he added, "Whicheverorder I would have put today, those guys really played welltoday. It wasn't a strategic thing.
"I knew they were going to go top heavy, we all knewthat. We got Poom to win us a point right off the bat. I don'tknow, I think the strategy was fine. I think we just gotoutplayed, nothing more than that."Thomas Bjorn said, "Yeah, it was a fantastic first coupleof days. These kind of events always become closer than youthink sometimes, and that's always good to know.
"You play for very few points the first two days and thenyou play for a lot of points on Sunday, and that's the waythese events are. It can swing very much on the last day andwe showed today that if you are good and strong on Sundays,you can win these things."Results of singles: Noren bt Fung 4&2; Casey lost to Poom1-up; Fleetwood bt Chawrasia 2&1; Stenson bt Tanihara 2&1;Cabrera-Bello bt Green 4&3; Wiesberger bt Phachara 2&1; Levybt Kiradech 3&1; Pieters bt Byeong-hun 1-up; Hatton bt Lahiri2&1; Fitzpatrick halved with Kang; Fisher lost to Ikeda 1-up;Dunne lost to Haotong 3&1.
Final result: Europe beat Asia 14-10. PTI Cor ATKATK.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.