Daniel Holland, Andy Borg and J.J. Micallef, representing Team Malta, placed a creditable 50th out of 67 teams with a score of +24 at the World Amateur Team Championships, held in Japan.

Team America kept hold of the Eisenhower Trophy with an aggregate score of -38, two ahead of runners-up Canada.

“The result represents an improvement of 15 places from Team Malta’s first showing in these championships in Turkey two years ago plus a team score of 44 strokes to the better,” the Malta Golf Association (MGA) said in a statement.

“While Malta’s team score was 92 strokes behind the USA in 2012, this year’s result narrowed this deficit to 62 – an improvement of 30 strokes.”

With the best two out of three scores counting on each day, the result is a combined effort of the three players with Borg showing the way for his two younger team-mates throughout the championships.

Borg’s four rounds consisted of seven birdies, 49 pars, 14 bogeys and two double bogeys for an overall score of +11. Starting his fourth and final round at 6.50am, Borg remained +7 for the tournament until the very last four holes when he dropped four shots to finish 132nd from 200 players.

Micallef and Holland both played to +20 for the tournament to tie them for an individual placing of 153. Their performances over the four days dovetailed each other so that their scores alternated on each successive day to be aggregated with those of Borg.

Micallef’s +3, +4, +8 and +5 scores comprised five birdies, 44 pars, 21 bogeys and two double bogeys whilst Holland’s +6, +2, +3 and +9 scores featured five birdies, 46 pars, 17 bogeys and four double bogeys.

Malta finished above the likes of Russia, Serbia and Greece in the final classification and not far behind Turkey.

“Of particular interest to us was the fact that Malta was the only team from the small states of Europe that travelled to these championships,” the MGA added.

The USA secured their 15th triumph in the Eisenhower Trophy despite final-round charges from Canada and Spain with respective team scores of -11 and -10 to the USA’s -7.

America’s DeChambeau (who had shot 61in the third round – the lowest in the tournament’s history) nailed a nine-foot birdie to clinch the trophy for the Americans who ended up with a record score of 534 eclipsing the 554 total of the Netherlands in 2006 by 20 strokes.

“Team Malta’s positive experience in this tournament could not have been possible without the assistance of Nick Borg who acted as team manager,” the MGA said.

Glenmuir provided the polo shirts for Team Malta while Bortex supplied the suits.

The trip to Japan was made possible through the assistance of the Kunsill Malti għall-iSport, the Maltese Olympic Committee and the R&A.

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