Golf: S'pore finish sixth in Nomura Cup

Golf: S'pore finish sixth in Nomura Cup

He was not yet born the last time a Singaporean struck golfing gold at the SEA Games.

But Jerome Ng believes that he and his team-mates are on course to end a wait which stretches back 24 years, to Samson Gimson's 1989 success in Kuala Lumpur.

"That's what we've been working towards," the 24-year-old told The Straits Times Sunday, after helping the Republic to a sixth-placed finish in the Nomura Cup at the Santiburi Country Club in Chiang Rai, Thailand.

Also known as the Asia-Pacific Amateur Golf Team Championship, this year's edition of the biennial tournament pitted golfers from 26 countries against one another over four days.

Singapore's Myanmar-bound quartet - comprising Ng, Jonathan Woo, 23, Marc Ong and Abdul Hadi, both 18 - finished with a total score of 850 - 22 strokes behind winners Australia.

"We've met expectations, given what we've been doing over the past year," national coach Andrew Welsford said of his team's performance.

"All four boys contributed equally - that's something I hadn't seen previously."

Since taking charge in August last year, the Australian has had a hand in establishing a system of centralised training in which national team players get together three times a week at the Singapore Island Country Club.

And the results are starting to show, as Ng, who was the team's top performer with a total of two-under 286, pointed out.

"Even countries like (Nomura Cup runners-up) South Korea were asking us about our programme," he revealed. "That shows that we're moving in the right direction."

Welsford agreed, adding that his charges are on track to return from Naypyidaw with at least a team silver in the bag.

"It's between Thailand and us," he said of the defending gold medallists from 2011, who finished third on home soil over the weekend, eight strokes ahead of Singapore.

"Our target is to win gold, of course, and we've shown that we're right on their heels."

That said, the Republic's golfers have been in a similar situation before and failed to produce.

Riding a wave of confidence into the Games two years ago after Putra Cup (the region's top amateur team event) success, a Choo Tze Huang-led quartet only managed to finish fifth in Indonesia.

Still smarting from that experience, Ng is determined to do better this time around and end Singapore's long wait for a golfing gold at the SEA Games.

"The pressure is there," he said. "But coping with it and overcoming it - that's the reason we do what we do."


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