Vietnamese golfer finishes fifth at international tournament

Nguyen Anh Minh missed out on T4 position due to a bogey on the final hole when the Taiwan Amateur Golf Championship 2023 shortened the schedule due to bad weather.

Anh Minh in the Vietnam National Golf Team jersey. Photo: Vietnam National Golf Team — Anh Minh in the Vietnam National Golf Team jersey. Photo: *Vietnam National Golf Team*

The event, hosted by the Chinese Taipei Golf Association (GAROC), has just reached its 30th edition on the par-71 course at Pei Tou Kuo Hua Golf & Country Club in Taiwan (China). The tournament has 53 men and 50 women from more than 10 countries and territories, with four rounds of stroke play scheduled from May 30 to June 2.

The Vietnam Golf Association (VGA) sent three key players in the national team, including Anh Minh, Le Khanh Hung and Doan Xuan Khue Minh, to participate in a professional training schedule to prepare for the Asiad in Hangzhou next September.

In the GAROC tournament, Khanh Hung and Khue Minh did not have to go through the elimination process according to the principle of taking top or T30 after two rounds, applied to both groups and women. Due to the storm on the first two days, the Organizing Committee decided to use the combined results after round 3 as the final result.

While his two teammates stopped early, Anh Minh went from T10 (+2) to T9 (+6) at the end of round 2.

In the final match, the 16-year-old golfer reached +5 after 17 holes with four birdies and three bogeys. At the par-4 hole 18, he bogey again, stemming from a poor drive, causing his score to drop to +6 and thereby finishing 5th. If he kept par on the last hole, Anh Minh would have at least finished T4 (+5), alongside local player Cheng Wei Hsieh.

The championship mark was set by Donghyun Moon of Korea at -2, three strokes ahead of his compatriot Minhyuk Song who finished second. Third place was +4. The tournament recorded the additional representatives of Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia at the 32nd SEA Games, a total of four competitors, but the entire group finished outside the top 11.

The recent Taiwan Amateur Golf Championship was the first real competition for the core group of the Vietnamese team after the miracle of three medals at the Southeast Asian Games hosted by Cambodia.

In the competition at the Garden City par72 course in Phnom Penh last month, 15-year-old Khanh Hung won the gold medal, Anh Minh received the bronze medal in the men's singles. Then, the two joined forces with Nguyen Dang Minh and Doan Uy to bring home the silver medal in the men's team. Meanwhile, all three female members, including Khue Minh, were outside the top 15 individually and failed to make it past the first stage of the group performance race.

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