South Koreans will be the golfers to beat

The 30th Queen Sirikit Cup - officially known as the Asia Pacific Ladies Team Championship - will see a strong challenge from the South Koreans.

The Koreans have won the Cup 10 times out of the 30 with the best record of all the teams competing. This is a remarkable effort given their fairly short golfing season and number of golfers. The successful results shows how a focused approach to teaching golf and “growing the game” can work.

In 2007 the Korean Team finished a remarkable 18 under par for the 54 hole team - the only team to finish in red figures.

They beat the local team, the Philippines, by a whopping 20 shots! Two of their team fought for the individual honours - Miss So-Yeon Ryu returning an aggregate score of 204 with rounds of 69 67 68 followed by Miss He-Yong Choi on 210 with rounds of 70 67 73 - all six rounds under par!

The Queen Sirikit Cup is a staging post for those ladies wanting to get a taste of pressure golf prior to going professional.

Notable performance in the 2007 event, not forgetting the superb scores posted by Choi and Ryu, was the brilliant 17-year-old Dasom Lee from New Zealand who finished equal third best individual in her debut at a major international tournament. Lee shot a three-over 75 on the last day - wrecked with two late double bogeys when she was dealt a cruel end of the greens that had become virtually unplayable.

Rounds of 70, 71 and the unfortunate 75 was a superb return on a tough golf course.

The 2007 Philippines event, played at Laguna, featured slick greens and strong winds. The 2008 version will be played on equally quick greens at the Victoria Golf and Country Resort but without, let’s hope the strong winds.

“Playing conditions should be excellent for the Ladies as we will be entering a dry spell with the course “running” a little” commented Victoria’s General Manager Mike Varney. “We have made some changes to the course, taking into account the new technology that golfers have theses days in their drives and golf balls.

The course’s architecture will be able to stand up to these long hitting ladies.”

The team representing Sri Lanka is yet to be announced. However there could be home field advantage with the staging of the Cup at Victoria Golf and Country Resort.

“I suppose that playing at home is not a double edged sword. Double edged in the sense that there will be more pressure on the girls to put in a good performance.

However we anticipate that having played at Victoria more times than their opponents will give the Team a better strategy for playing the course. Certainly the fact we are at altitude, 1500 feet or so, will mean that judgment of distance from experience here should help - we hope so” added Varney. “We will not be tricking up the course to suit our team as we wish to win fair and square!”

The Sri Lankan Team’s chances of winning are remote given the strength of the opposition - that being said bigger giant feats have been pulled off in sport and maybe this is the Sri Lankan’s chance.

2007 Results - Laguna Country Club, Philippines

414 Korea 139 134 141

434 Philippines 143 143 148

435 Japan 149 134 152

441 New Zealand 144 146 151

445 Australia 140 148 157

450 Thailand 149 153 148

459 Chinese Taipei 153 149 157

465 Indonesia 152 155 158

467 India 156 151 160

468 Malaysia 152 155 161

468 Singapore 157 150 161

468 China 156 153 159

485 Sri Lanka 166 155 164

487 Hong Kong 166 158 163

Leading individuals:

204 So-Yeon Ryu (Kor) 69 67 68

210 He-Yong Choi (Kor) 70 67 73

216 Dasom Lee (NZL) 70 71 75

This prestigious event is held in a different country in the Asian Region in rotation each year.

The tournament was first played in 1979 initiated by Thailand with the patronage of Her Majesty Queen Rambai Bharni, the Royal spouse of King Rama VII.

There will be 14 participating teams from the Asia Pacific region, Australia, China, Chinese-Taipei, Hong-Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The Cup starts on the 1 st of March 2008 and is held at Victoria Golf and Country Resort near Kandy.