The fairy tale continues. Estonia came from 0-3 down to beat France in the second extra leg and advance to the last four!
The Estonian golf team continues its special week in Italy, where it has finished in the top four at the European Team Championships. The quarter-final against France was extremely exciting, and in the last match they had to use extra holes to defeat France, and on several occasions it seemed hopeless, but they managed to get out of difficult situations several times, and the crown was a 4:3 victory, and in the semi-finals they will have to face a strong Sweden, who defeated the defending champion Spain by the same score. Results
For Estonians, tee times are 8:50 and 9:00 tomorrow morning Estonian time. The afternoon individual matches start from 14:10. Germany and the Netherlands will meet in the second semi-final. Follow the semi-finals
In the morning foursome matches, unfortunately, we had to admit defeat in both. Especially painful was the loss of Ralf Johan Kivi and Richard Teder on the last rail. Our opponents made a three metre birdie putt and we missed a slightly shorter one. When Richard Teder was unexpectedly quickly beaten by his opponent in the individual matches in the evening (final score 4&3), we were already trailing 0:3, and the loss of any further match would mean a final defeat. But slowly the situation started to improve. Markus Varjun, who had held a solid lead throughout the match against Bastien Amat, the current world number 23 in amateur golf, was slowly losing control and we entered the 17th hole with only a one-shot lead over the Estonian. Fortunately for us, our opponent made an exceptionally poor play on the rough, hitting the ball just 50 yards out and eventually he ended up three shots off the green and failed to make a par putt. Markus Varjun, despite a minor incident with the referees (his opponent tried to get a slightly dubious advantage with one of the rules), cold-bloodedly converted his 1.5 metre putt and the 2&1 win meant an overall score of 1:3.Ralf Johan Kivi and Mattias Varjun, who also dictated their matches for most of the day, couldn’t make the most of their win on the 17th green, but luckily both didn’t falter on the last lane and we suddenly found ourselves in a 3:3 tie. It was all up to anchorman Carl Hellat, who came into the 17th with the tie. Unfortunately, the second shot almost reached the bunker, the downhill chip went 2,5 meters long and Carl unfortunately missed it, which meant a 1-run deficit. The kick-off on the 18th hole found the Frenchman in the right-hand rough, and because of the trees it was impossible to hit from there, so the Frenchman opted to play out to 100 metres. Carl, however, had opened his tee shot to 200+ meters, in the middle of the fairway where he hit an iron to the start of the green. The Frenchman’s third shot reaches 7 meters from the flag, but not yet to the green, which gives us a chance, which Carl realizes with two putts for birdie. Extra time! Carl hits his second shot at the green on the first hole, but it is almost 20 metres from the flag, while the Frenchman lands his second shot just 1.5 metres away. Carl’s putt is a good one, but we still depend on the Frenchman. Fortunately, the god of golf is an Estonian at this point and the Frenchman misses this slightly tricky downhill putt. Another extra fairway, with both players opening with an iron to the middle of the fairway. The opponent has to hit first from there, misses slightly to the right of the fairway but still has a chance to putt. Now it’s Carl’s turn to put the ball 2 yards out. The Frenchman’s putt from about 7 meters misses the mark and Carl takes the opportunity and leads the Estonian team into the semi-finals with a birdie. A moment later, the alarm sounds because of the thunderstorm threat.
Highlights of the day:
Swedish players’ world rankings:
Lucas Augustsson 726
Albert Hansson 74
Simon Hovdal 241
Algot Kleén 67
Jakob Melin 182
Daniel Svärd 51
