Hoan (fourth right) celebrating HKH Pink’s hat-trick win with other team members after receiving their prizes from KGS club captain Dr David Sylvester Ling.
Team Captains’ Ballsweep gross champion Johari Aman (centre) receives his prize from tournament committee member Stephen Mau while KGS tournament chairman Mazlan Mohamad Salleh looks on.
KUCHING: HKH Pink played all their hearts out to clinch the Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Dr Wong Soon Kai Challenge Trophy for the third consecutive year at Kelab Golf Sarawak (KGS) yesterday.
The defending champions warded off a spirited challenge from Cash to win 3-2 in the KGS Team Matchplay Championship, which was one of the highlights of the KGS golfing calendar for 2016.
In yesterday’s final, team manager and captain Hoan Kee Hock partnered Sim Khee Hian to give HKH Pink the 1-0 lead when they defeated Cash’s pair of Lincoln Leong and Jackson Lim 7-6 in the foursome.
Goh Chee Chen levelled 1-1 for Cash as he edged Jimmie Teo 5-4 in the first singles before Giannino Foo restored HKH Pink’s lead by beating Ong Kim Pheng 3-2 in the second singles while Lee Kah Ming and Aziel Teo stretched HKH Pink’s lead to 3-1 when they outplayed Phang Ted Hin and Vincent Wong 5-4 in the first four-ball.
Having scored the winner, HKH Pink conceded the final point to Cash as Aaron Lau and Bernard Yeo lost 0-1 to Martin Wong and Martin Chai in the second four-ball.
Other members of HKH Pink were Azizul Annuar Adenan, Samdrick Yeo and Ngui Meu Chuong.
Apart from lifting the challenge trophy, the champions collected a goods voucher worth RM12,000 and personal trophies while Cash walked away with a goods voucher worth RM6,000 and trophies.
Coming in third were Mafia Hukum who received goods voucher worth RM3,000 and trophies.
“I played exceptionally well today to win 7-6 and our junior players, some of whom were Sukma XVIII golfers, did well too. We were also lucky to hit a lot of unexpected birdies at some of the holes,” said Hoan when met after the final match.
According to him, it was very tough to defend the title this year as HKH Pink “gave” their opponents a lot of strokes because of the handicap rule.
“We didn’t expect to win three years in a row. It was not like last year and 2014 and this year it seemed as if we had to play our best whether win or lose,” he said.
“We were thinking that we are going to lose today as we were giving them a lot of strokes because our players had lower handicaps. Next year, we are coming back and we need to train very hard,” added Hoan who hoped that there would be a change in the rules especially on the handicap.
“It was a very exciting match today and we have to admit that the better team won. It was a close fight. We have tried our best and come this far,” said Cash team captain Jackson Lim.
“I am very proud of my players. Today we met a better team today, we were beaten by them before we entered the final.
“Thank you very much to the efforts of all my players as they were very dedicated and supporting. We won in 2012 and this is the second time we came close to becoming the champions,” he said.
Meanwhile, Johari Aman from Harmoni won the gross title in the team captains’ ballsweep by carding 74 strokes to beat Waili Abang of Mafia (77) and Abdul Aziz Sahari of Titan (79).
The nett title was won by Bakhtair Sabri of CMS who posted a score of 68, beating Tungie Wong Tung Wee of Eagles on count back and Marconi Madai from SEB was third on 69.
One hundred and ninety-two golfers representing 16 teams took part in the championship which was held over five weekends since March 27.