Thai pride at GolfSixes
GolfSixes report: What happened at Oitavos Dunes?
Thailand are the GolfSixes champions after beating England in a play-off in the final.
The Thai team of Phachara Khongwatmai and Thongchai Jaidee and English team of Tom Lewis and Paul Waring were inseperable in the final round – each earning a point apiece – as well as the first sudden-death play-off hole, which sees the teams play the par-3 6th once more. If a seventh hole is required, a closest to the pin competition is contested.
Related: Paul Waring joins us on the NCG Podcast
And it was Khongwatmai, who at 20 is 29 years his partner’s junior, who knocked it to kick-in range for the win.
Thailand win the #GolfSixes! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/K538Zyqcus
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) June 8, 2019
The pair then took a dip in the swimming pool, over which the players had hit from a makeshift 6th tee:
Great scenes! Team Thailand are in the swimming pool 🌊#GolfSixes pic.twitter.com/dceLMthlmt
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) June 8, 2019
GolfSixes report: The results
After day one the group stages looked like this, with the top two from each going through to Saturday’s quarter-finals:
This is how the quarter-finals panned out:
One match away from the final.
Not bad on your #GolfSixes debuts. pic.twitter.com/ijYC2hxFyd
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) June 8, 2019
Team Thailand are into the last four.#GolfSixes pic.twitter.com/JSj6jLKXqF
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) June 8, 2019
Spain advance 🇪🇸
They'll play Thailand in the #GolfSixes semi-final. pic.twitter.com/JGF48JB9PZ
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) June 8, 2019
While Italy beat France 2-1 thanks to Edoardo Molinari’s closest to the pin effort:
Playoff drama – closest to the pin to win 🎯
Team Italy advance to the semi-finals. 🇮🇹 pic.twitter.com/GFONqmJTKb
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) June 8, 2019
And so that left four, starting with a crushing win for England:
??#GolfSixes pic.twitter.com/YBX6TummOz
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) June 8, 2019
A tight second semi-final goes down to the wire.#GolfSixes pic.twitter.com/e2D7se1CzS
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) June 8, 2019
It was successive back-to-back 3-0 defeats for Italy, who went down to Spain in the 3rd-place play-off:
3rd place goes to Spain.
They took down Italy 3-0 in the 3rd/ 4th place playoff. pic.twitter.com/qtDvN0LWrf
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) June 8, 2019
And we know what happened in the final.
GolfSixes report: What they said
“I’m gutted, genuinely gutted,” said Lewis, who missed this putt to win the tournament:
To win the #GolfSixes… pic.twitter.com/uw2vf7iTqg
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) June 8, 2019
He added: “We’ve come a long way and we played so many good matches but we slipped up a little bit in the beginning a couple of times and that handed them a little bit of confidence. We did well to make it to the play-off and unfortunately didn’t make the putts.”
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Alex Perry
Alex has been the editor of National Club Golfer since 2017. A Devonian who enjoys wittering on about his south west roots, Alex moved north to join NCG after more than a decade in London, the last five of which were with ESPN. Away from golf, Alex follows Torquay United and spends too much time playing his PlayStation or his guitar and not enough time practising his short game.
