ARGENTINA LEADS AFTER OPENING-ROUND OF 2007 COPA DE LAS AMERICAS
- Team Canada sits fifth heading into Thursday’s second round -
Aurora, Ont. (RCGA) – Argentina fired a team total 16-over 304 to take the opening-round lead at the 2007 Copa de las Americas at Beacon Hall Golf Club in Aurora, Ont.
Riding the national momentum of countryman Angel Cabrera’s historic victory at last week’s US Open, the Argentine foursome of Alan Wagner, Luciano Dodda, Victoria Tanco and Agostina Parmigiani is sending a message to the countries of the Americas that they’re quickly becoming a golf nation on the rise.
“Obviously Cabrera winning the US Open captures major attention and right now everybody knows about golf back in Argentina,” said team captain Mark Lawrie. “We came here with a very good team looking to make a run against some very strong competition. This event is unique because of the teams but especially combining men and women for an international title. When you’re representing your country, our players are focused on reigning in their individual risk and thinking of the team first.”
Team USA sits alone in second at 20-over followed by Colombia (+21) and Mexico (+23). The Canadian team of Laura Matthews of Essex, Ont., Stephanie Sherlock of Barrie, Ont., Graham Hill of Bright’s Grove, Ont. and Keven Fortin-Simard of Roberval, Que. rounds out the top-five as the event’s defending champions closed out the day with a team-total 315 (+27).
Led by Jose Toledo’s scorching opening-round 4-under 68, Gautamala takes a two-shot lead over Argentina in the men’s division. Toledo and teammate Sebastian Fernandez finished Wednesday’s opening round at 2-over 146 while Argentina’s Wagner and Dodda sit at 148. The Canadian men’s team of Graham Hill of Bright’s Grove, Ont. and Keven Fortin-Simard of Roberval, Que. fired matching opening-round 76’s to hold down third place at 152.
On the women’s side, the United States duo of Stacey Lewis and Jennie Lee shot a team-total 11-over 155 to lead Colombia and Argentina by a single stroke. Team Canada’s pairing fired opposite ends of the scorecard to find themselves alone in sixth at 19-over. Stephanie Sherlock of Barrie, Ont. shot the low women’s round of the day with her 4-over 76 while Laura Matthews of Essex, Ont. struggled early and finished with an opening-round 87.
The prestigious Beacon Hall Golf Club showed its teeth Wednesday as cool and gusty conditions made for tough scoring at the challenging Aurora layout. In all, only two competitors finished the opening round at even par or better.
With Canada hosting the countries of the Americas for the first time, the host committee at Beacon Hall has gone to great lengths to extend some Canadian hospitality to the 50-player field. Following Tuesday’s practice round, a bus trip was arranged for teams to attend the Toronto Blue Jays game against the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers. While the home team came up short, the game proved especially eventful for one delegate as the coach for the Agentina team – Ruben Llanes – took home a souvenir foul ball before joining his team in celebration on the video scoreboard.
The following are opening-round scores Wednesday, June 20 at the 2007 Copa de las Americas:
Overall Team Results – Round 1
1 Argentina 150 154 304 +16 +16
2 USA 156 152 308 +20 +20
3 Colombia 146 163 309 +21 +21
4 Mexico 159 152 311 +23 +23
5 Canada 163 152 315 +27 +27
6 Peru 165 158 323 +35 +35
7 Puerto Rico 159 167 326 +38 +38
8 Trinidad and Tobago 165 163 328 +40 +40
9 Guatemala 170 172 342 +54 +54
10 Dominican Republic 177 174 351 +63 +63
Women’s Team Results – Round 1
1 USA – Women 77 78 155 +11 +11
T2 Colombia – Women 75 81 156 +12 +12
T2 Argentina – Women 78 78 156 +12 +12
4 Mexico – Women 81 77 158 +14 +14
5 Peru – Women 79 82 161 +17 +17
6 Canada – Women 86 77 163 +19 +19
T7 Puerto Rico – Women 83 84 167 +23 +23
T7 Trinidad and Tobago – Women 80 87 167 +23 +23
9 Guatemala – Women 95 101 196 +52 +52
10 Dominican Republic – Women 98 99 197 +53 +53
Men’s Team Results – Round 1
1 Guatemala – Men 75 71 146 +2 +2
2 Argentina – Men 72 76 148 +4 +4
3 Canada – Men 77 75 152 +8 +8
T4 Colombia – Men 71 82 153 +9 +9
T4 Mexico – Men 78 75 153 +9 +9
T4 USA – Men 79 74 153 +9 +9
7 Dominican Republic – Men 79 75 154 +10 +10
8 El Salvador 78 79 157 +13 +13
9 Puerto Rico – Men 76 83 159 +15 +15
10 Trinidad and Tobago – Men 85 76 161 +17 +17
T11 Peru – Men 86 76 162 +18 +18
T11 Ecuador – Men 81 81 162 +18 +18
13 Uruguay – Men 85 83 168 +24 +24
14 Costa Rica – Men 86 85 171 +27 +27
15 Venezuela – Men 89 87 176 +32 +32
Individual Women Results - Round 1
T1 Paola Moreno Perez Colombia 38 38 76 +4 +4
T1 Stephanie Sherlock Canada 39 37 76 +4 +4
T3 Agostina Parmigiani Argentina 40 37 77 +5 +5
T3 Stacy Lewis USA 38 39 77 +5 +5
5 Jennie Lee USA 39 39 78 +6 +6
T6 Kiara Hayashida Peru 40 39 79 +7 +7
T6 Diana Cantu Mexico 38 41 79 +7 +7
T6 Liliana Alvarez Mexico 43 36 79 +7 +7
T6 Victoria Tanco Argentina 38 41 79 +7 +7
10 Maria José Uribe Duran Colombia 37 43 80 +8 +8
11 Monifa Sealy Trinidad & Tobago 38 43 81 +9 +9
T12 Maria Salinas Peru 39 43 82 +10 +10
T12 Kyle Roig Puerto Rico 41 41 82 +10 +10
14 Patricia Garcia Puerto Rico 42 43 85 +13 +13
15 Martine de Gannes Trinidad and Tobago 42 44 86 +14 +14
16 Laura Matthews Canada 47 40 87 +15 +15
17 Anne Mette Brunn Dominican Republic 45 43 88 +16 +16
18 Mariana Rodas Guatemala 47 46 93 +21 +21
19 Maria José Camey Guatemala 48 55 103 +31 +31
20 Alba Garcia Dominican Republic 53 56 109 +37 +37
Individual Men Results - Round 1
1 José Toledo Guatemala 36 32 68 -4 -4
2 Alan Wagner Argentina 36 35 71 -1 -1
3 Andres Felipe Echavarria Botero Colombia 34 39 73 +1 +1
4 Rafael Campos Puerto Rico 35 39 74 +2 +2
5 Johnathan Moore USA 38 37 75 +3 +3
T6 Graham Hill Canada 37 39 76 +4 +4
T6 Julian Valenciana Mexico 38 38 76 +4 +4
T6 Keven Fortin-Simard Canada 40 36 76 +4 +4
T6 Rafael Claux Peru 39 37 76 +4 +4
T6 Carlos Benjamin Arias Dominican Republic 39 37 76 +4 +4
T11 Herbert Day El Salvador 38 39 77 +5 +5
T11 Yoshio Yamamoto Mexico 40 37 77 +5 +5
T11 Luciano Dodda Argentina 36 41 77 +5 +5
T14 Webb Simpson USA 41 37 78 +6 +6
T14 Sebastian Fernandez Guatemala 39 39 78 +6 +6
T14 Juan Felipe Aegerter Ecuador 39 39 78 +6 +6
T14 Francisco Santoni Dominican Republic 40 38 78 +6 +6
T18 Robert Moore El Salvador 40 40 80 +8 +8
T18 Marcelo Rozo Rengifo Colombia 37 43 80 +8 +8
T18 Ben Martin Trinidad & Tobago 43 37 80 +8 +8
T18 Pablo Carrere Uruguay 41 39 80 +8 +8
22 Carlos Baynes Trinidad and Tobago 42 39 81 +9 +9
23 Juan Antonio Serrano Ecuador 42 42 84 +12 +12
T24 Alfred Colon Puerto Rico 41 44 85 +13 +13
T24 Manuel Jimenez Costa Rica 43 42 85 +13 +13
T26 Pascual Andrés Cicenia Venezuela 44 42 86 +14 +14
T26 Philip Reiser Peru 47 39 86 +14 +14
T26 Antonio Bruna Jr. Costa Rica 43 43 86 +14 +14
29 Pablo Faget Uruguay 44 44 88 +16 +16
30 Daniele Vittorio Cabriles Impera Venezuela 45 45 90 +18 +18
Thursday’s second round of the Copa de las America gets underway at 8:00 am at Beacon Hall Club.
Conducted this year by the Royal Canadian Golf Association (RCGA) and hosted for the first time ever in Canada, The 2007 Copa de las Americas welcomes teams representing 15 countries from North, Central and South America as well as the Caribbean.
The third bi-annual Copa de las Americas will see teams compete over four rounds of stroke play with both team and individual titles up for grabs. The event is proudly supported by both the R&A and the United States Golf Association (USGA) through funding to offset the travel costs of participating countries.
For more information including a full field of competitors, start times and post-round results please visit the Royal Canadian Golf Association website at www.rcga.org.
ABOUT THE RCGA NATIONAL TEAM PROGRAM
The RCGA delivers a world-class high performance program through its National Team initiative. The National Team Program annually identifies the best 32-35 players through published selection criteria. The program, comprised of both a National Junior Team and National Amateur Team, is designed to offer players a year-round program incorporating state-of-the-art coaching, sport science expertise, training camps and world-class competition. The RCGA allocates over $1 million of its resources annually to the National Team Program encompassing strength and conditioning, sports psychology, nutrition, biomechanics and technique development. Players who are selected to the National Amateur and National Junior Teams will also represent “Team Canada” at 6-10 internationally-sanctioned golf competitions throughout the year. The intent of this aggressive program is to aid Canada’s top up-and-coming amateur players in all areas of their development to help Canada produce the best golfers in the world.
ABOUT THE ROYAL CANADIAN GOLF ASSOCIATION
The Royal Canadian Golf Association (RCGA) is the governing body of golf in Canada, representing 377,000 members at 1650 clubs across the country. Some of the RCGA’s core services include the Rules of Golf, handicapping and course rating, support of turfgrass and environmental research, the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame and Museum and CN Future Links, Canada’s national junior golf program. In addition, the RCGA conducts Canada’s most prestigious golf championships. The Canadian Open and CN Canadian Women’s Open attract the best professional golfers in the world, while six regional junior championships, 10 national amateur championships and the CN Canadian Women’s Tour showcase the best of Canadian golf. For more information please visit www.rcga.org.
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For more information please contact:
Dan Pino
Manager, Media and Public Relations
Royal Canadian Golf Association
(t) 1-800-263-0009 x 406
(c) 416-434-5525
(e) dpino@rcga.org
Michael Grobe
Senior Coordinator, Media and Public Relations
Royal Canadian Golf Association
(t) 1-800-263-0009 x 230
(c) 905-467-2944
(e) mgrobe@rcga.org
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