ENGLAND TAKE SILVER IN BUENOS AIRES
 England,
in the shape of Sam Hutsby (pictured left - photo courtesy
of Tom Ward) and Chris Wood, made a brave defence of the Juan
Carlos Tailhade Cup in Argentina but eventually finished runners-up
to Australia.
Starting the final day at the Los Lagartos County Club in
Buenos Aires in seventh place after a disappointing third
round, the English pair were determined to finish in a medal
position.
It seemed a tall order after they had been five shots behind
the Aussies after round one, seven adrift at halfway and 13
off the lead starting round four.
Although Wood birdied the second hole, the day didn’t
start well with Hutsby pulling a four-iron out of bounds at
the third while Wood did likewise at the fourth.
However, both kept the loss to a single shot by birdieing
with their second ball, while Wood got into red figures with
further birdies at the fifth and sixth.
He also birdied the 13th before three-putting the 15th from
three feet, while tree-trouble saw him finish with a level
par 71.
With both players’ scores to count, Hutsby, meanwhile,
birdied the fifth only to give it back with three putts at
the 12th but at the 15th the Hampshire teenager played arguably
the shot of the round with a three-wood from 250 yards to
five feet.
The resulting eagle took him to one under, where he finished
by getting up and down from bunkers at the 16th and 18th for
a 70.
It was a long wait to see how many of the six teams ahead
of them would stay there, but only Australia did, leaving
England in the silver medal position.
Australia, represented by Rohan Blizard and Amateur Championship
runner-up Tim Stewart, led from start to finish, particularly
after Blizard opened with a course record 63, and compiled
an aggregate of 568, 12 better than England with Spain and
the United States a shot further back.
Leading final scores:
568 Australia (R Blizard 63 70 72 74, T Stewart 75 73 70 71)
580 England (S Hutsby 72 73 75 70, C Wood 71 72 76 71)
581 Spain, USA
583 New Zealand, South Africa, Holland
586 Argentina
587 Peru
595 Columbia
596 Italy
599 Canada
601 Portugal
613 Finland, Uruguay
616 Wales (J Vickery 77 83 74 74, J Howie 75 77 80 76)
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