Report
On the 16th and 17th of September 2000 the first annual Match Play
Championship was held at Kolding Golf Club. In the first match Tom H. Olesen,
the Stroke Play Champion, played Anders Astrup. After a slow start Tom got his
game going and won comfortably by 4&3. Gert Meeske, the Runner-up in the
Stroke Play event was struggling with his game this morning but still managed to
put together a 3&2 win against Jens Christian Hansen. Jonas Sörensson
played Morten Ramsgaard and was 7 up after 11 holes but bogeys on 12 and 13 made
the match go to the 14th hole where Jonas closed the match with a birdie 3 for a
5&4 victory. The last match this morning was between Erik Munk-Christensen,
4 time winner of the Stroke Play event, and Søren Holm Andersen. In the Stroke
Play event Søren beat Erik by 2 shots and once again Søren came out on top
defeating Erik 3&1.
The first semifinal was between Tom and Jonas and it was probably the most
exciting match of the tournament. No player was at any point more than 1 up and
they match each other hole for hole - par for par - birdie for birdie. It all
came down to the 18th where Tom was 1 up. He hit his tee-shot just short of the
green and some 15 yards from the pin. Jonas answered this by hitting his
tee-shot within 3 feet of the hole and now Tom had to hole his chip to win the
match. His chip just lipped out and now it was just a formality for Jonas to
force the play of. But, to the surprise of everybody around the 18th green,
Jonas missed the short put and this gave Tom a spot in the final and a chance to
win The Double.
In the other semifinal Søren showed an outstanding performance by beating
Gert 7&6. Both Sørens victory and the margin by which he won it was a big
surprise - but thats the beauty of Match Play. Søren managed several birdies
and was up-and-down from everywhere and as Gerts putter was cold as ice there
was nothing he could do.
The final was played Sunday morning and Tom got of to a good start and never
looked back. He eased to a 4&2 victory to win The Double, which he was very
proud of.
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