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MELBOURNE, Australia – U.S. Junior Presidents Cup captain Justin Leonard interrupted an interview with his opposing captain, Stuart Appleby, to congratulate him on his team’s furious rally, which came up just short. Team U.S.A. held on for a 13-11 victory over Team International at Royal Melbourne Golf Club, but not before giving them quite a scare.
“Your guys came out swinging today,” said Leonard, whose side entered the day with a 9-3 lead from the opening day’s Four-Ball and Foursomes sessions.
“Otherwise, your guys would’ve been skipping around after nine holes,” Appleby said.
“I’m glad you did,” Leonard said. “I told my guys it was going to be a lot harder than you think it is.”
The players on the 12-man teams experienced a very different Royal Melbourne, which flexed its muscle as a “hot northerly,” as the locals call it, blew in raising temperatures in excess of 100 degrees. Appleby compared the winds, whipping more than 40 mph, to the Santa Ana winds in California.
Ian Siebers earned the first point of the day with a 7-and-6 walloping of Chuan-Tai Lin – the shortest match in the competition’s history – but then the Internationals bounced back and won the next five matches. First, Jayden Schaper took down Jackson Van Paris 2 up and Kartik Sharma, a lefty whose mannerisms remind Appleby of Mike Weir, handled Stephen Campbell, Jr., 3 and 1. Andu Xu gained a big scalp with a 1-up victory over Maxwell Moldovan. When Bo Jin (3&2 over Benjamin James) and Jang Hyun Lee (5&4 over Jack Heath) tacked on wins to cut the deficit to 11-8, the possibility of an epic comeback started to become a reality.
“It was a great comeback,” Appleby said. “We needed to show resilience and they did. The headlines would’ve been ‘The Melbourne Massacre or The Sand Belting.’ We dug in. It was ‘Chariots of Fire’ on the beach stuff. We pounded down the beach and America turned around and saw us. That’s what I wanted. We made it a great fight. The only thing better would’ve been to have found one more match.”
But the 9-3 advantage entering singles play was too much to overcome. Michael Thorbjornsen took care of Aussie Karl Vilips 4&3 before Alexander Yang, a two-time Rolex Junior All-American, put the red, white and blue on the brink of victory with a hard-fought 2-up win over Jordan Duminy to bring the U.S. Team’s total to 12 points. Yang never held the lead against Duminy until the 17th hole which he won with a par and then clinched match for the Americans after his rival got into trouble with an errant drive on 18.
“As a team, we fought back in the closing holes really well,” Yang said. “I was worried but I thought I could certainly win my match. It was kind of worry and confidence at the same time.”
It was all over when Vishnu Sadagopan of Pearland, Texas, clinched the winning point with a 2-up victory over Australia’s Joshua Greer. Sadogpan was the only player to win all three matches this week.
“It’s probably the best thing I’ve ever accomplished in my life,” Sadagopan said. “To win the winning point for my country is amazing.”
South Africans Samuel Simpson and Martin Vorster each won the final two matches to give The Internationals an 8-4 edge in singles.
“They can go home feeling proud that they nearly did it,” Appleby said.
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