England Take Silver in Buenos Aires - 27th Nov 2007

England, in the shape of Sam Hutsby and Chris Wood, made a brave defence of the Juan Carlos Tailhade Cup in Argentina but eventually finished runners-up to Australia.

Starting the final day at the Los Lagartos County Club in Buenos Aires in seventh place after a disappointing third round, the English pair were determined to finish in a medal position.

It seemed a tall order after they had been five shots behind the Aussies after round one, seven adrift at halfway and 13 off the lead starting round four.

Although Wood birdied the second hole, the day didn’t start well with Hutsby pulling a four-iron out of bounds at the third while Wood did likewise at the fourth.

However, both kept the loss to a single shot by birdieing with their second ball, while Wood got into red figures with further birdies at the fifth and sixth.

He also birdied the 13th before three-putting the 15th from three feet, while tree-trouble saw him finish with a level par 71.

With both players’ scores to count, Hutsby, meanwhile, birdied the fifth only to give it back with three putts at the 12th but at the 15th the Hampshire teenager played arguably the shot of the round with a three-wood from 250 yards to five feet.

The resulting eagle took him to one under, where he finished by getting up and down from bunkers at the 16th and 18th for a 70.

It was a long wait to see how many of the six teams ahead of them would stay there, but only Australia did, leaving England in the silver medal position.

Australia, represented by Rohan Blizard and Amateur Championship runner-up Tim Stewart, led from start to finish, particularly after Blizard opened with a course record 63, and compiled an aggregate of 568, 12 better than England with Spain and the United States a shot further back.

Leading final scores:
568 Australia (R Blizard 63 70 72 74, T Stewart 75 73 70 71)
580 England (S Hutsby 72 73 75 70, C Wood 71 72 76 71)
581 Spain, USA
583 New Zealand, South Africa, Holland
586 Argentina
587 Peru
595 Columbia
596 Italy
599 Canada
601 Portugal
613 Finland, Uruguay
616 Wales (J Vickery 77 83 74 74, J Howie 75 77 80 76)

Related Links

• http://www.englishgolfunion.org

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