National golf team achieved their best place yet at the World Championship!

Foto: EGL

The Estonian national golf team finished tying for the high 39th place in Ireland, achieving their highest place in history. On the final day, Joonas Turba got a result of ‒3 and Kevin Christopher Jegers a result of +3. Jegers struggled on a par-5 lane where he even scored a nine. The result after four days was ‒2. Ahead of us by one stroke was France, and by an unfortunate two strokes Finland.

Denmark became World Champion leading by one stroke in front of USA who got second place, and by three strokes ahead of Spain who got third place. The championship will be held in Hong Kong in 2020, and in France in 2022.

Head coach Paul Põhi commented: „The boys achieved the minimum goal that was set to them – to get the best place so far for Estonia (40th place in 2008 was achieved in Australia, team members: Paul Põhi, Egert Põldma, Mark Suursalu). There was a lot of room for improvement though. The boys are not far behind world champions with their long-distance shots, but they are far behind in their short-distance shots. With shots like that the team should have played ‒15.

The best player of the tournament – Joonas. Joonas plays too monotonously at short-distance. To excel at the links, you also need to trust low and rolling chip shots. The longer distance shots worked better and held out against the strain from the game.

Carl – no expected follow-up to the Estonian Championship. Carl’s strokes were fairly equal to those of the best players here. However, putting is what failed him, and badly so. Unfortunately, the unsteadiness built up, and hindered him from realising his excellent long-distance game.

Kevin contributed well to the final result of the team. Kevin was also struggling with his short-distance game. In addition to his poor putting, he also made mistakes chipping, failing all chances for an excellent game round.

The boys need to start doing some serious mental training. Especially Kevin who keeps getting stuck in negative thinking.

Then again, if we consider their participation in the Estonian Championship, all the travelling mayhem, and the fact that they didn’t get to practise at the O’Mera with their own gear before the competition, then the result is pretty good.

The below-par result is actually very good, and the boys are demonstrating a professional attitude. The best position of all times matters too. Occasionally, it was painful to watch, when a good club member could have done a better job at putting. We could have made history here.

Nevertheless, the boys are only 17 years old, and in two years’ time we’ll have a stronger and more experienced team to send to the championship.”

Joonas Turba: „I’m pretty happy with the competition. I do have a few putts still haunting me – some simple mistakes and misjudgments. But all in all, I managed to finish with ‒1 that I’d take any day. Putt was definitely one of the strongest parts of the game, which surprised me, and I was better at shorter irons than before. It is nice to end the season with a competition like that and slowly switch to the winter period.”

Carl Hellat: „The tournament did not prove a very successful one for me, a great many shots were ruined by putting, but the rest I can be satisfied with.”

Kevin Christopher Jegers: „It was great to participate in a competition like that. I got a lot of experience. I am not satisfied with my overall performance though. Putt failed me too much, and additionally, on the final day, I managed to strike the ball from the air against the flag, so that it rolled back to the water and the result for that hole was nine. Luckily, on the final two days, my drive was back to normal, but this time it wasn’t enough.”