It was down to the wire and the Aussie’s forced a tie-breaker securing the 2019 Yamaha FootGolf Asia Cup at Horizons Golf Resort this week.
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The Australian team won the Cup in a tense tie-breaker with Japan, Australia went on to win with a score of 4.
Leonardo Fernandez told News Of The Area, “Australia has hoped to take the FootGolf Asia Cup for 4 years now so this is a very emotional win for the whole team.”
“We all knew Japan was the team to beat.
They beat us 4/2 during the week so this is a great comeback!”
“The next step is to get a very strong team for Australian for the 2020 World Cup event in Japan.
“Horizons is the best FootGolf course in the country, we want to bring families, we want to bring groups of friends and groups of competitive players into FootGolf,” he said.
52 students from Tomaree High School got into FootGolf this week and learned new skills with Matias Perrone world champion for FootGolf running a workshop for the students.
At this tournament no-one was more emotional about the win than Australia’s team captain Joe Scibilia from the NSW Central Coast who was lost for words in the clubhouse following his team’s triumph.
It’s been a lifelong goal of Joe’s to play professionally for Australia.
To do so as team captain as well as taking out the Asia Cup took his dream to a whole new level.
“I told the guys going into this that we had the squad to take the Asia Cup!
“They did their job and performed so strong all week.
“Japan is one of the World’s best and made it to the same level as us in The World Cup last year.
“We’ve been training hard toward this for the past few years so knowing all the hard work has paid off and we beat them gives us such a boost,” he said.
The Australian player ranked #1 Deryn Knott says a lot of team strategy was employed to come out on top against the Japanese players on an extremely difficult course.
“This is a particularly challenging course where there are very few safe shots.
“Every hole has its difficulties and to stay in the game, took a lot of team talks to strategise or work out how to get out of a bind.
“Everyone was really taking their time with each shot to get it right,” said Knott.
The Japanese Consul General Mr Kiya Masahiko travelled from Sydney for the final.
“We’re looking forward to having Australia in Japan next September for the World Cup where our teams will go head to head again,” he said.
Mr Taka Kaieda, Managing Director of sponsor Yamaha Motor Australia said, “Yamaha are a passionate company.
“We love to support others who share our passion for driving innovation.
“Being part of the Asia Cup has given me an appreciation for how exciting FootGolf is as a spectator sport and that precision and skill are so important to the game,” he said.
The event finished off with the World Tour Event FIFG 250 on Saturday and the FootGolf Challenge where Team Asia played against Team Rest of the World.
By Marian SAMPSON
