National team squad members Andy Borg, JJ Micallef and Daniel Holland are currently in Japan to participate in the World Team Amateur Championships – Eisenhower Trophy – that will be held in Karuizawa between tomorrow and Saturday.

Upon their arrival, the golfers were joined by Nick Borg who resides in Japan.

Borg will assist the players during their stay taking the role of team manager to ensure that they remain focused on their game and not have to deal with the daily administrative practicalities.

Conducted by the International Golf Federation, which comprises the 137 national governing bodies in 131 countries, the champion-ships are a biennial competition that rotates among three geographic zones – Asia/Pacific, Americas and Europe/Africa.

This will be Malta’s second showing in the championships considered as the ‘Olympics’ for amateurs.

Malta participated for the first time two years ago in Turkey and the national team placed 65th out of 72 teams. The side was then composed of Andy Borg, Ruud Critien and Peter Satariano. Borg registered the best score out of the three with a +31 over 72 holes.

The championships actually kicked off last week with the Espirito Santo Trophy for the ladies who, like their male counterparts, play on the Oshitate and Iriyama courses.

For the Eisenhower, the Oshitate course will be set up at 7,010 yards and will play to par 33-38=71 whilst the Iriyama will be 7,008 yards to a par of 36-36=72.

The competition is a team event where each formation has two or three players.

Each of them play 18 holes of stroke play over four days.

In each round, the total of the two lowest scores from each team will constitute the team score for the round. The four-day (72-hole) total will be the overall result for the championship.

The trip to Japan was made possibly through the coaching and competition assistance of the Kunsill Malti għall-Isport, the Maltese Olympic Committee and the R&A.