Historically the best place for Estonia
The World Team Championships ended today in France. Italy was crowned world champion for the first time. Sweden came second, losing by just one stroke, and third place went to the USA. The Estonian team took the historically best place, ending the week on 28th place. The team consisted of Kevin Christopher Jegers and brothers Markus and Mattias Varjun. The team was coached by Mark Suursalu. Results
Among the neighbours, Finland finished a very high 10th. Denmark, the defending champion, shared 11th place. The Czech Republic took the unofficial title of the best Eastern European country this time, one beat ahead of us in 25th place. Lithuania finished in 48th place, while Poland shared 52nd place. Ukraine 58th.
Next year’s World Cup will be held in Dubai and, as the tournament will be played on one court instead of two, the number of teams will be reduced to 36. According to unofficial reports, the Estonian team has secured a place at the next World Cup.
Playing captain Mattias Varjun: “The whole team did a great job and all in all we can be satisfied with the tournament. The team can be satisfied with the overall result and we can all be happy with the tournament. We put in an average performance considering our level, but even with that we were in good competition. At this level, the gaps are small and it’s all in the details. We didn’t make the most of our opportunities this week, but if we can continue to improve in the same way we will be in a position to offer stronger competition next year.”
Kevin Christopher Jegers. It’s hard to play good golf when one part of your game is well below average. I had a lot of difficulty with my putting this week and in the end it’s mentally exhausting. But as a team we did well and it was definitely a positive tournament for us.”
Mark Suursalu. We made the most of our opportunities there and there were no major mistakes. Le Golf National was a tougher course, a lot of water around the fairways and the greens. It was on the greens that we couldn’t use our good approach shots. We missed 3-4 shots on the greens in both rounds. 28th place is a good result. It was definitely important to finish in the top 36 to secure qualification for next year’s competition.”
