Abu Dhabi Golf Club (National Course), Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
The United States of America surged to its 16th Eisenhower Trophy win, and its first since 2014, on Saturday in the 33rd World Amateur Team Championship at Abu Dhabi Golf Club. David Ford, the No. 5 ranked amateur in the world, posted an 8-under 64, while 2023 U.S. Amateur champion Nick Dunlap contributed a 4-under 68.
“I just feel so happy for these guys,” said USA Captain Mark Newell. “This is a great championship filled with lots of good players and they really earned their victory with great play all four rounds and especially today.”
On the strength of a red-hot Ford, who was 6-under through his opening six holes, the Americans quickly established an eight-shot cushion midway through the opening nine. Ford rattled off four consecutive birdies followed by an eagle hole-out from 140 yards on the par-4 sixth to kick-start his final round.
“I’ve never been 6-under through six before,” said Ford, who carded a 29 on the front side. “I didn’t look at the leaderboard until about hole 13. I wanted to see where we were and then I just tried to make as many birdies as I could coming in.”
Ford’s 64 is the second-lowest individual final round score in World Amateur Team Championship history.
After struggling to get things going early on, Dunlap birdied six of his final 10 holes, leading to his 68, and Gordon Sargent, the low amateur in the 2023 U.S. Open, posted a non-counting 71 for the USA in the fourth round. Dunlap (2), Ford (T-5) and Sargent (T-5), who competed together on last month’s victorious USA Walker Cup team at St Andrews, all finished in the top 5 of the individual scoring.
“I love the fact that everybody contributed just about equally,” said Newell. “Every player had the best score at least one day and every player had the highest score at least one day. They all carried the team for stretches and they all ended up shooting about the same scores overall. A true team effort and exactly the kind that it takes to win this kind of event.”
The USA’s 72-hole hole score of 36-under-par 540 was 11 strokes better than the silver-medal winning Australia and Norway teams. The 11-shot victory was the largest championship margin since Australia’s 19-stroke win in 2016.
Australia used a strong finish by Jack Buchanan (4-under 68), who birdied four of his final five holes, and a counting score from Karl Vilips (2-under 70) to close at 25-under-par 551.
Norway’s silver is its first medal in the country’s 26 Eisenhower appearances. The Norwegians, whose previous best finish was fourth place in 2022, used a 3-under 69 from Herman Sekne and a 2-under 70 from Michael Mjaaseth for a team total of 551.
“Obviously, you want to win when you have a chance to, but this is the best that our country has ever finished, so that’s something to be proud of,” said Sekne, a senior at Purdue University. “Hopefully we’ll be back next time and win it.”
France finished in fourth place, one stroke behind Australia and Norway at 24-under 552. Italy, the 2022 champions, and New Zealand finished in a tie for fifth place at 553.
The USA receives custody of the Eisenhower Trophy until the next World Amateur Team Championship, which will be held in 2025 in Singapore. Members of the winning team receive gold medals and members of the two second-place teams receive silver medals.
Although there is no official recognition, New Zealand’s Kazuma Kobori, the 2023 Western Amateur champion, was the low individual scorer at 16-under 272.
Quotable:
Gordon Sargent, USA: “I played last year [at the WATC in France] and obviously we didn’t finish the way we wanted to. That kind of stung standing there on the podium looking up at the guys who won, so it was nice to come here and get the job done. That flight home would not have been very fun if we had come in second.”
Nick Dunlap, USA: “About two months ago we were lifting the Walker Cup trophy and to do the same here is pretty special.”
David Ford, USA: “It feels sweet. We know each other really well. We all got to share in winning the Walker Cup so to represent our country well again here means the world.”
Captain Hans Aberg, Norway: “They’ve been very calm all week. No stress or nothing. They just went out and played a very impressive performance.”
Ahmad Skaik, United Arab Emirates: “It was a tough week for me. I’m disappointed in my play but a few positives from the week that I can take away. It was a great experience. It’s always an honor to play for the national team especially at home on such a big stage.”
Notable:
- The USA’s 12-under 132 is tied for the second-lowest final-round team score in championship history (since moving from three to two counting scores in 2002). Singapore also carded a 12-under-132 on Saturday.
- In 33 appearances, the Americans have won 28 total medals (16 gold, nine silver and three bronze).
- The USA is one of seven nations to participate in all 33 World Amateur Team Championships since 1958.
- David Ford’s 29 on the front nine tied the second lowest nine-hole score in championship history, which has occurred six other times. Denny McCarthy shot a 28 on the front nine during the final round of the USA’s Eisenhower Trophy win in 2014.
- Australia now has 14 medals, which remains second all-time behind the United States.
- Norway’s Michael Mjaaseth finished in a tie for eighth place in the individual scoring after he tied for ninth in 2022. He is the only player to finish in the top 10 both years.
- Czechia (T-8th) registered its best finish in a WATC after placing 22nd in 2018.
- South Africa finished in seventh place for its first top-10 showing since 1998.
- Kazuma Kobori’s 16-under bested Nick Dunlap by one in the individual scoring. Kobori was the 2023 Elite Amateur Series champion. In addition to his Western Amateur victory this summer, Kobori added top-10 finishes in the Southern Amateur and Trans-Mississippi Amateur.
What’s Next:
The 30th Women’s World Amateur Team Championship for the Espirito Santo Trophy will take place beginning Wednesday at Abu Dhabi Golf Club.
The 2025 World Amateur Team Championship for the Eisenhower Trophy will be held at Tenah Merah Country Club in Singapore.
Results from Saturday’s final round of the 2023 World Amateur Team Championships, played at par-72 Abu Dhabi Golf Club (National Course), in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
1 United States of America 135-137-136-132–540 Nick Dunlap 69-67-69-68–273 David Ford 68-74-69-64–275 Gordon Sargent 67-70-67-71–275T2 Norway 144-134-134-139–551 Herman Sekne 73-64-68-69–274 Michael Mjaaseth 71-70-66-70–277 Mats Ege 75-77-71-70–293T2 Australia 137-137-139-138–551 Jeff Guan 68-69-68-72–277 Karl Vilips 69-68-73-70–280 Jack Buchanan 76-72-71-68–2874 France 135-138-139-140–552 Bastien Amat 68-70-67-69–274 Hugo Le Goff 67-68-72-71–278 Paul Beauvy 68-73-74-73–288T5 New Zealand 139-139-139-136–553 Kazuma Kobori 70-70-67-65–272 Sam Jones 69-72-72-71–284 Jayden Ford 74-69-73-72–288T5 Italy 142-138-136-137–553 Pietro Bovari 69-67-69-70–275 Flavio Michetti 73-73-67-67–280 Riccardo Fantinelli 74-71-70-71–2867 South Africa 139-138-138-139–554 Christo Lamprecht 71-68-68-70–277 Christiaan Maas 70-70-71-69–280 Altin van der Merwe 69-71-70-71–281T8 Czechia 139-135-140-142–556 Filip Jakubcik 69-67-70-71–277 Petr Hruby 72-68-70-73–283 Louis Klein 70-72-73-71–286T8 Ireland 145-139-138-134–556 Matthew McClean 72-68-68-69–277 Alex Maguire 73-73-72-65–283 Liam Nolan 75-71-70-70–28610 Netherlands 136-140-139-142–557 Jack Ingham 70-70-69-73–282 Benjamin Reuter 66-71-76-71–284 Lars van der Vight 77-70-70-71–288T11 Denmark 137-138-143-142–560 Jacob Olesen 68-71-71-71–281 Frederik Kjettrup 75-67-72-71–285 Gustav Frimodt 69-75-72-71–287T11 Spain 138-140-142-140–560 José Luis Ballester 69-72-68-69–278 Luis Masaveu Roncal 69-70-74-71–284 Angel Ayora 71-70-76-78–295T11 Mexico 143-133-142-142–560 Santiago De La Fuente del Valle 71-66-72-71–280 Omar Morales 72-68-70-71–281 José Islas Valdespino 75-67-74-75–29114 Argentina 137-138-146-140–561 Joaquín Ludueña 70-70-74-67–281 Vicente Marzilio 69-68-72-75–284 Segundo Oliva Pinto 68-72-76-73–289T15 England 137-143-142-140–562 Tyler Weaver 68-71-70-71–280 Jack Bigham 72-72-72-69–285 Barclay Brown 69-73-72-75–289T15 Germany 141-141-145-135–562 Jonas Baumgartner 71-70-70-69–280 Tim Wiedemeyer 70-72-75-68–285 Tiger Christensen 73-71-76-67–287T17 Canada 146-142-136-139–563 Brady McKinlay 72-72-68-69–281 Ashton McCulloch 74-70-68-70–282 Piercen Hunt 80-74-70-77–301T17 Chinese Taipei 143-136-141-143–563 Chuan-Tai Lin 72-66-72-72–282 Ching Hung Su 71-70-72-75–288 Chi Chun Chen 74-77-69-71–291T17 Wales 142-139-141-141–563 Tomi Bowen 70-71-70-71–282 Matt Roberts 75-71-75-70–291 James Ashfield 72-68-71-80–291T17 Japan 142-140-141-140–563 Yuta Sugiura 72-70-71-69–282 Riura Matsui 75-70-73-71–289 Minato Oshima 70-70-70-80–290T21 Scotland 141-140-140-145–566 Connor Graham 70-71-68-69–278 Calum Scott 71-69-72-76–288 Gregor Tait 78-79-72-76–305T21 Switzerland 142-142-143-139–566 Max Sturdza 70-68-71-73–282 Nicola Gerhardsen 74-74-72-70–290 Marc Keller 72-80-75-69–296T21 People’s Republic of China 138-135-144-149–566 Justin Bai 69-68-73-76–286 Zihang Qiu 69-67-71-83–290 Ziqin Zhou 76-69-79-73–29724 Morocco 141-142-143-141–567 Soufiane Dahmane 69-69-72-75–285 Hugo Mazen Trometter 72-74-71-70–287 El Mehdi Fakori 75-73-73-71–292T25 Colombia 142-139-138-149–568 Nicolas Quintero 69-69-67-76–281 Carlos Conde 73-72-71-75–291 Manuel Merizalde 76-70-73-74–293T25 Republic of Korea 144-142-135-147–568 Seonghyeon An 73-70-65-75–283 Donghyun Moon 71-72-70-72–285 Sungho Lee 74-72-74-85–305T27 Sweden 145-141-140-143–569 Daniel Svard 70-71-73-71–285 Tobias Jonsson 75-71-69-72–287 Albert Hansson 79-70-71-73–293T27 Guatemala 146-143-139-141–569 Gabriel Palacios 72-70-73-70–285 Juan Ricardo Davila 74-74-66-73–287 Alejandro Villavicencio 82-73-73-71–299T29 Austria 147-144-138-142–571 Christoph Bleier 73-71-66-67–277 Fabian Lang 78-73-72-75–298 Florian Schweighofer 74-77-79-77–307T29 Singapore 154-142-143-132–571 Hiroshi Hirahara Tai 79-71-72-65–287 Ryan Ang 78-71-71-67–287 Troy Storm 76-78-75-74–303T31 Finland 149-139-144-141–573 Elias Haavisto 77-67-71-71–286 Jesse Saareks 74-72-76-70–292 Markus Luoma 75-75-73-79–302T31 Thailand 149-145-141-138–573 Ashita Piamkulvanich 74-70-70-66–280 Parin Sarasmut 75-75-71-72–293 Jiradech Chaowarat 75-77-73-77–30233 India 150-142-148-142–582 Yuvraj Singh 74-70-72-71–287 Shaurya Bhattacharya 76-73-76-71–296 Rohit Narwal 79-72-76-74–30134 Zimbabwe 143-147-151-144–585 Tafadzwa Nyamukondiwa 70-72-74-78–294 David Amm 73-76-77-69–295 Keegan James Shutt 82-75-78-75–31035 United Arab Emirates 155-153-153-154–615 Rayan Ahmed 79-79-75-77–310 Ahmad Skaik 80-74-80-77–311 Thomas Nesbitt 76-80-78-79–31336 Guam 169-158-157-161–645 Markus Nanpei 86-80-74-74–314 Nalapon Vongjalorn 84-78-83-87–332 Eugene Park 85-86-85-89–345
Media Contact: Joey Geske, jgeske@usga.org, +1 (651) 328-3000
