- a brief encounter in the woods didn't stop him
Stellenbosch, South Africa (October 26, 2006) – Canada, with sub-par scores from Richard Scott and Andrew Parr, built a two-stroke lead on the windy first day of the 2006 World Amateur Team Championships.
On a 5-under-par 139 team score from Scott (3-under 69) and Parr (2-under 70), Canada moved into the lead over Netherlands (141) and France (142).
Scott, an All-American at the University of Georgia in the USA, and Parr, from Texas A&M University, combined for the low team total at Stellenbosch Golf Club, a parkland-type layout.
On a day that cooled considerably as the wind speed increased, Canada played in the relatively benign conditions of the morning.
Parr began with four consecutive birdies, including a 40-footer on the first hole, to gain early momentum for the team. Scott latched onto his teammate’s good play and tied for the day’s low round with Will Besseling of Netherlands.
"Whenever you know a guy on your team is playing well, you know you have support and you don’t have to force things,” Parr said.
"It’s nice to be on top of the leader board,” said James Love, who shot 1-over 73 and finished first at the fall leg of Canadian Tour qualifying in 2006. “It’s nice not to be so far back that you can’t get it back. But, we’ve got three more days and there are a lot of good teams out there.”
A total of nine teams are within five strokes of Canada in a tightly packed scoreboard. Trailing the top three teams in a five-way tie for fourth place are South Africa, Austria, Malaysia, defending champion USA and Mexico at 143. Wales and Scotland stood tied for ninth place at 144.
"It is good to finish at 1-under just as the defending champions did,” said South African captain Enver Hassen. “It is a good halve."
Mexico captain Jorge Betanzo said: “The weather was quite testing and the wind really picked up just before we started. It made it more difficult for us.”
In the World Amateur, the team’s two best individual scores count.
The International Golf Federation was founded in 1958 to encourage the international development of the game and to employ golf as a vehicle to foster friendship and sportsmanship. The IGF is the recognized international federation for golf for the International Olympic Committee and comprises the national governing bodies of golf of more than 100 countries.
Story written by Pete Kowalski, IGF Media Officer. E-mail him with comments and questions at pkowalski@usga.org.
To view complete results for individuals and teams, click the link on the top of this page next to "see also" and follow the "results" tab.
ABOUT THE Men's World Amateur Team
In 1958 the United States Golf Association
asked The R&A to join them in sponsoring
a world-wide amateur golf team event to
be played biennially in non-Walker Cup
years. Between 35 and 40 nations were
represented at the first meeting and
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
presented the trophy which bears his
name. The committee of the event was to
be known as the World Amateur Golf
Council and is now the International Golf
Federation. Teams of four players from
each country competed over 72 holes with
the leading three scores from each round
to count. The first competition was held
between 29 nations at St Andrews, with
Australia beating the United States in a
play-off. In 2002 the format changed to
teams of three with the two leading
scores to count.
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