Holden wins Toyo Golf Tournament
KUWAIT CITY, Feb 22: Toyo Golf Tournament was organized last Friday 14th Feb 2020 at the Sahara Golf Club. Held in February each year for commemorating the National & Liberation Days, the trophy is appropriately called the Liberation Cup. It was the 37th year of this prestigious event, which started in 1983 and since then has been held each year with the exception of 1991.
The tournament is quite popular among golf enthusiasts, and there is always an overwhelming request for participation which is not just limited to Sahara Club members but includes golfers from all over. As always, the players were categorized into two divisions based on their handicap levels: Division A (Handicap 0 to 14) and Division B (Handicap 15 to 28).
The highlight of the day was a stupendous performance by David Holden who hit a fabulous 7 birdies so as score 36 points net and thereby winning the trophy in Division A. Not only that – he won the coveted Best Gross Trophy by achieving a score of 72 points (in a par-70 course). David was followed by the veteran Qatami Al-Qatamiin the second place on 34 points.
In Division B, Kwang Soo Lee was the winner with 38 points. He was closely followed by the young prodigy
A player in action.
Vedant Aryan also on 38 points. Incidentally, Vedant achieved the amazing feat of scoring an Eagle (2-under par on a hole).
Among other prizes, Nearest to Pin was won by Kwang Soo Kim on Hole # 14 and Andrew Barr on Hole # 4 in Ladies and Men’s categories respectively. As regards Longest Drive, Clara Suh was the winner in Ladies at Hole # 6, whereas in the Men’s group, the corresponding prize was won by Trin Van Minh at Hole # 13.
Thankfully the cold weather system which had developed over Kuwait over the last week had subsided, giving way to salubrious climatic conditions over the week-end with ambient temperatures and a mild cool breeze.
Prize distribution was organized in the afternoon in the gracious presence of KentaKuribayashi, Corporate Officer and HiroshiTani, Division General Manager, Toyo Tires Japan who had specially flown in from Osaka for the event. Speaking on the occasion, Kuldeep Lamba, Managing Director, Al Mailem Group expressed his satisfaction at the enthusiastic response, and complimented Razmic, Richard, Jason and other Sahara Club staff for their professional administration of the event.
Golfers – ready to strike. CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland, Feb 22, (AP): Corinne Suter won the season-long World Cup downhill title on Saturday by finishing race runner-up to Lara Gut-Behrami for the second straight day.
Gut-Behrami edged her Swiss teammate Suter by 0.02 seconds, with Nina Ortlieb of Austria just 0.05 off the pace in third.
Suter held a clear lead in the downhill standings and needed only to finish ahead of Federica Brignone and Ester Ledecka to secure her first career World Cup crystal trophy.
“I am just happy to celebrate it with my family now,” said Suter, the first Swiss woman to win the title in 29 years, since Chantal Bournissen in 1991.
Brignone placed fourth and lost her podium place - and the overall standings lead - when Gut-Behrami and Ortlieb raced down as later starters in the top-20 group.
That preserved Mikaela Shiffrin’s overall lead as the three-time defending champion takes an extended break from racing after her father’s death this month.
Shiffrin’s lead over Brignone is just 27 points with Brignone among the favorites to score 100 on Sunday by winning a combined event. Petra Vlhova, who tied for 14th Saturday, trails Shiffrin by 86 points.
It is unclear when the American star will return to compete, though the season’s final month is peppered with Shiffrin’s specialist slalom and giant slalom races.
Suter leads the downhill standings by 155 points over Ledecka, the double Olympic champion in Alpine skiing and snowboarding who placed fifth. The only downhill left is the finals week race on March 18 in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
The 25-year-old Suter is the fifth different winner of the downhill
Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami speeds down the course during an alpine ski, Women’s World Cup downhill in Crans Montana, Switzerland on Feb
22. (AP)
trophy in five years, since Lindsey Vonn retained the seasonlong title in 2016. That was the eighth World Cup downhill title of the now-retired Vonn’s storied career.
A turning point in Suter’s career was also Vonn’s farewell race They took silver and bronze, respectively, in downhill at the 2019 world championships in Are, Sweden.
“The most pressure on me went away when I won the silver and bronze (in super-G) medals at the world champs,” Suter said. “Afterwards I could ski just with my head free. This is what makes me fast.”
Gut-Behrami excelled again on another clear day with sunshine warming the south-facing Mont Lachaux course. She trailed Suter by 0.26 at the final time split, then found speed in a twisting section with a jump launching her toward the finish line.
A 26th career World Cup win for Gut-Behrami was a 10th in downhill for the 2016 overall World Cup champion.
Third place was a career-best result for the 23-year-old Ortlieb, whose father Patrick won the 1992 Albertville Olympic downhill title.
Filip Zubcic of Croatia won a men’s World Cup giant slalom race in Japan on Saturday after coming from 12th place after the first run.
Zubcic had a strong second run for a combined time of 2 minutes, 37.25 seconds to finish 0.74 seconds ahead of Switzerland”s Marco Odermatt. Tommy Ford of the United States was third, 1.07 seconds off the pace.
“I was always hoping to win a World Cup race and I knew it could come this season as I have been skiing really fast lately.,” Zubcic said. “This victory is for my family and my team, who have been supporting me for the last 21 years.”
It was the second career podium for Ford after winning his home race in Beaver Creek in December.
Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway won the first run, 0.67 seconds ahead of compatriot Leif Kristian Nestvold-Haugen.
Nestvold-Haugen and Kristoffersen finished fourth and fifth, respectively. Ted Ligety of the United States finished 11th.
Zan Kranjec of Slovenia, who leads the overall giant slalom standings, was ninth.
Last week’s men’s downhill in China was cancelled over fears of the coronavirus. The event had been scheduled for Feb. 15 in Yanqing to start a two-race weekend.