10/11/2006

By Stuart McLean

There have only been two tied results in the history of the WATC, over 45 separate championships.

The first came in the inaugural Eisenhower Trophy at St. Andrews in 1958, and the second happened more recently, in the 2002 Espirito Santo Trophy in Malaysia.

There was an 18-hole playoff in 1958 over the Old Course, between Australia and the United States, while a count-out system was U.S.ed to determine a champion between Australia and Thailand in 2002. In both cases, the Australians came out on top.

The very first Eisenhower was a remarkable championship. Played from October 8 to 11, in the Scottish autumn, it took place in difficult conditions, sunny but with blU.S.tery chill winds and wet turf that made the Old Course play extremely long. Joe Dey, writing in Golf Journal on the championship, said “the greens were glazed by the wind. It was not unU.S.ual to see a golfer run to his ball on the green before the wind had a chance to blow it off.”  In the four days, only one player in the field managed to break par around the Old Course, and that was Australian Peter Toogood, who had a 71 in the third round.

A view of the third hole at Stellenbosch Golf Club.

In the first round, none of the Australians broke 80, and they posted a total of 244 from their best three scores out of four. It left them as many as 17 shots behind leaders Great Britain & Ireland, and 11 adrift of the Americans.

Seemingly out of the picture, the championship was then treated to a remarkable Oz comeback, spearheaded by 21-year-old Bruce Devlin – who went on to become an eight-time winner on the PGA Tour in America. Devlin shot 73-74-73 the last three rounds.

Australia cut the deficit with GB&I to nine shots after 36 holes, moving into fourth place, with New Zealand and the U.S. filling the sandwich. The Kiwis, with lefthander Bob Charles to the fore, took the lead after 54 holes by three shots from the U.S., with Australia and GB&I four shots back in third place. The Americans were hanging in thanks to the legendary Bill Hyndman, who closed with 73-72 the last two days to share individual honours on 301 with Devlin and the home team’s Reid Jack.

Australia set the pace in the final round, posting an overall total of 918 that looked good enough to win. However, Hyndman, in the last group of the day, made a remarkable birdie 3 at the Road Hole and a par at the last for the Americans to force a tie. Great Britain & Ireland ended one shot back in third place, and New Zealand three adrift in fourth position.

The championship wound up on a Saturday, and with the Old Course closed on Sundays, the 18-hole playoff was delayed until the Monday. It was incredibly close and tense, the Australians edging in by two shots (222 to 224) thanks to birdies on the final hole by Devlin, who shot 72, and playing captain Robert Stevens. In 2002, competitors in the WATC had to endure heat and humidity in Kuala Lumpur, as the Australian women won the Espirito Santo Trophy in a tiebreaker over Thailand at Saujana G&CC’s two courses. For the first time the IGF U.S.ed each team’s third individual score for the final day to determine the world champion, a provision adopted after the 1992 event nearly finished in a tie.

Thailand was only playing in the event for the third time, but had two outstanding players that year in the 16-year-old Wongluekit identical twins, Aree Song and Naree Song, both based in the United States. They led from the first round, after shooting 71 and 68 respectively. The Australians started poorly, being 13 shots back after day one, but solid scores thereon from their team of Lindsay Wright, Katherine Hull and Vicky Uwland pulled them right back into contention over the next two days.

Thailand entered the last round with a one-shot lead over Spain, and three ahead of Australia and Germany. Wright shot 72 to match Aree Song’s 72, and Hull’s 73 made up the three-shot difference on Naree Song’s 76. Spain missed the tie for first place by jU.S.t one shot.

Great Rivalries

From the beginning of the Eisenhower Trophy some special rivalries were formed between the leading golfing nations. The early years of the Eisenhower Trophy saw some great duels between the four leading nations of the time, the United States, Australia, Great Britain & Ireland, and Canada.

In the first six events, between 1958 and 1968, these four nations scooped 17 of the 18 medal places. The U.S. won three times, Australia twice, and GB&I on the other occasion. The competition was keenly fought. On no fewer than four occasions there were only one or two shots in it between first and second.

One of the most exciting tournaments was the 1968 Eisenhower at Royal Melbourne in Australia, which saw some excellent scoring in a two-horse race between the Americans and their old rivals, Great Britain & Ireland.

The GB&I team, with stalwart Michael Bonallack having a superb week – he shared the individual honours with Marvin Giles (U.S.) – led by two after the first round, with 20-year-old Peter Oosterhuis, a future star on the European Tour and in the Ryder Cup, opening with a 70.

The Americans had a good second day to claim the lead themselves by two, but it wasn’t to last. Bonallack shot 66 in the third round, and there was a 9-shot swing as GB&I posted a team score of 207. They led the U.S. by seven strokes going into the final round.

However, the Americans rallied for what is today still the biggest last-round comeback in the history of the Eisenhower Trophy, making up eight shots as GB&I faltered under the pressure, posting a score of 229.

The championship was decided on the very last hole. Ronnie Shade (GB&I), playing with Dick Siderowf (U.S.) in the last group, needed to hole a six-foot putt for par to secure an overall tie, but missed, shooting 77 to Siderowf’s 73.

The American men have achieved several similar come-from-behind successes over the last 18 or 36 holes, and 2002 in Malaysia was one of them. France had taken a 3-shot lead over the U.S. into the final day, and were looking for their first-ever Eisenhower triumph, to add to the success of their women’s team in 2000. The Americans overtook them and won by three, thanks purely to a remarkable closing 66 by DJ Trahan, whose scores hadn’t counted the first two days. Trahan made an eagle and two birdies in the last six holes to frU.S.trate the French. The other U.S. score to count was a 74, while the French had scores of 72 and 74.

One championship where the Americans didn’t get their way was 1992 in Canada, where New Zealand, two behind the U.S. going into the final round, and six behind with 9 holes to play, came storming back to win by seven shots. The two best individuals that week were Kiwis Phil Tataurangi, who shot 271, and Michael Campbell (272). They eclipsed two future Open champions, David Duval and JU.S.tin Leonard, playing for the U.S. team.

The French Connection

The first decade of the Espirito Santo Trophy was distinguished by a remarkable rivalry between the French and United States teams.

The French had an outstanding trio of golfers, the Three MU.S.keteers you could call them, of Catherine Lacoste, Claudine Cros and Brigitte Varangot. They played together as a team in four successive championships, from 1964, the first Espirito Santo event, until 1970, and were never out of the top 3.

The French won the inaugural championship at home course St Germain, by one shot from the Americans (after trailing by a shot going into the final round), and were then third on the following two occasions, as the United States began a streak of six successive triumphs from 1966 to 1976.

However, France’s loss to the Americans in 1970 was a heartbreaking one, in incredibly close circumstances. Playing in Madrid in Spain, the French got off to a quite sensational start, shooting 141 the first day on a tough course, Cros having a 70 and Varangot 71. It gave them a four-shot lead over the U.S., which they stretched to seven after 36 holes. But the Americans, with Jane Bastanchury and Martha Wilkinson to the fore, rallied on day three, closing the gap to two shots. The final round was a tense one, and it was a closing 74 by Wilkinson that clinched a one-shot victory, as the French slipped to a score of 154, their worst effort of the week. Lacoste, the hero of the 1964 victory, shot a costly 78, a score that counted.

France had to wait 36 years before they triumphed again, in Germany in 2000. Having not won a medal since 1986, the French overhauled their team system with a new regimen of teaching and training methods. They employed a personal trainer, who emphasised daily stretching programmes and dietary guidelines for the players. They also picked a 25-year-old captain, Gwladys Nocera, now a prominent playing professional, who was to become the youngest winning captain in history. Nocera then played for France in the 2002 Espirito Santo Trophy, although without the same winning fortune. The French took the lead in the second round in 2000, and went on to win by seven shots from Korea.

Bold Move Pays Off

Great Britain & Ireland won their final Eisenhower Trophy in 1998 after nearly missing the championships.

Politics cast a shadow over the 1998 WATC in Chile when two nations, Spain and Great Britain & Ireland, both decided against sending their teams for the women’s competition. A few weeks earlier the former Chilean president AugU.S.to Pinochet had been arrested in Britain, and his extradition was being sought by Spain. Officials in Britain were advising against non-essential travel to the South American nation.

There were demonstrations in front of the British and Spanish embassies in Santiago, only a few kilometres from one of the courses hosting the championships.

No immediate decision was made about the participation of the men’s teams from these two countries, who were due to play the week after the women, and it was eventually agreed at the last moment that they should come out after a handful of Royal & Ancient staff and committee members had enjoyed a quiet week in Santiago.

It turned out a good decision for the Great Britain & Ireland men, as they went on to win the Eisenhower Trophy for the first time outside of a European venue – their fourth title in all. Boosted by three excellent rounds on the last day from Gary Wolstenholme (67), Lorne Kelly (70) and Luke Donald (70), they caught third-round leaders Finland and won by four shots from Australia.

Finland, with 18-year-old Mikko Ilonen having an exceptional week – he finished second best individual behind Australian Kim Felton – had been the surprise team of the championship. The Finns held a 3-shot lead over GB&I and Australia going into the final round. Ilonen closed with a 69, but the two next best scores from his team-mates were both 75, and Finland slipped to fifth place, which remains their best-ever result.

GB&I non-playing captain Peter McEvoy became the first person to win the Eisenhower Trophy as a player (that was in 1988) and captain.

The Great Britain & Ireland women’s team surprisingly never won the Espirito Santo Trophy on the 19 occasions they competed – the last of those being in Puerto Rico in 2004 when they finished a disappointing 25th, their worst ever result and only the second time GB&I had been outside the top 10.

The closest they came to winning was in 1992 in Vancouver, when they collected their second silver medal to add to the one from 1974. The GB&I women had a tremendoU.S. battle for the title over the four days with Spain. They were six shots ahead of Spain after day one, but a bad third round saw them lose the lead, and trail by one. Joanne Hockley and Catriona Lambert both shot 73 the last day, but it meant they still finished one behind, as Spain’s Estefania Knuth birdied two of the last three holes for a 72 and team-mate Macarena Campomanes shot 74.

This story originally appeared in the October issue of Golf Digest. It is being republished with the permission of Stuart McLean and Golf Digest.