Kosuke and Atthaya tee up golf golds for Kingdom
THAI-JAPANESE Kosuke Hamamoto and red-hot Atthaya Thitikul will lead the men’s and women’s golf teams in the SEA Games, where Thailand are defending champions.
Thailand Golf Association president Rungsarid Luxitanonda yesterday announced the four-member men’s team consisting of the Chiang-Mai based Kosuke, Kamalas Namuangruk, Witchayanon Chothirungrueng and Sadom Kaewkanjana, and the three-member women’s team comprising Atthaya, who won the Ladies European Tour’s Thailand Championship, Thitapa Iamtragul and Manuschaya Zeemakorn. The competition will be held at the Mines Resort and Country Club in Selangor next month.
Unlike the previous Games, the 29th episode will feature only the three best male players and two best female players in individual events, which will be played under matchplay format. Rungsarid has set an ambitious goal of winning all four events, which the country achieved two years ago.
“We have a squad of talented players. We sent them abroad to play in various tournaments and gain experience. Our team won the Taiwan Amateur Open in the men’s and women’s events. Atthaya won the individual title before she bagged the Ladies European title at home last week,” Rungsarid said.
Atthaya became the world’s youngest winner of a women’s professional golf event, at just 14 years and four months. The precocious teen believes she has a strong chance of winning the gold medal at the Mines Resort and the Phoenix Gold Golf and Country Club, where she made history last weekend.
“It’s been my ambition to win the SEA Games gold medal for a long time. My team-mates and I have been training hard for the Games. The course is quite narrow like the Phoenix but with thicker woods. You need to hit the fairways and make putts to shoot low scores there,” said Atthaya, who will play two events in the Netherlands and the British Open before the Games.
Kosuke, who showed his potential by stunning two-time European Tour winner Nicolas Colsaerts of Belgium in a play-off to win the All Thailand Tour in Nakhon Nayok in 2015, said the thought of carrying Thai hopes was making him nervous.
“It will be my first time in the Games and there is a load of expectations. I need to work on my short game a bit more before the tournament starts. But I believe the matchplay format will benefit us as we have aggressive players like Kamalas, Witchayanon and Sadom, who putts very well. I believe we have a great chance in the team event. I also believe that anyone of us can win the individual title too,” said the 18-year-old, who is currently playing an amateur event in Singapore. The team will start training for the Games in Chiang Rai from August 1-18.
