{"id":104358,"date":"2026-08-13T13:37:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T10:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/?p=104358"},"modified":"2026-09-28T13:40:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T10:40:24","slug":"matas-played-fantastic-golf-but-spaniard-advanced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/en\/matas-played-fantastic-golf-but-spaniard-advanced\/","title":{"rendered":"M\u00e4tas played fantastic golf, but Spaniard advanced"},"content":{"rendered":"

The R&A Girls\u2019 Amateur Championship in Scotland came to an end for the Estonian players yesterday. In the battle for a place in the last 16, Iiris M\u00e4tas produced a superb round but unfortunately had to concede a narrow one-hole defeat to one of the tournament\u2019s top players, Adriana Garcia Terol (WAGR 259). According to the world rankings, the Spaniard was the tournament\u2019s third seed. Results<\/a><\/p>\n

Her opponent made a strong start, making three birdies in the opening five holes. Nevertheless, after nine holes the Estonian had taken a one-hole lead, having played the opening stretch in two under par. On the 10th, Iiris added a chip-in birdie to move two up, but her opponent immediately responded with back-to-back birdies to level the match. After the 14th hole, M\u00e4tas regained a one-hole advantage when the Spaniard made a bogey, but her opponent immediately levelled again on the 15th with a long birdie. Another birdie on the 16th put the Spaniard one up once more. The penultimate hole was halved in pars, as was the final hole, with both players making birdies. Iiris completed a bogey-free round in four under par. Her opponent, however, made no fewer than eight birdies during the day to advance to the last 16.<\/p>\n

The final was an all-Spanish affair between Marta Munoz and Adriana Garcia Terol, with Munoz winning 3&2. Results<\/a><\/p>\n

Iiris M\u00e4tas finished tied for 17th overall, matching Elizaveta Sofia Reemet\u2019s result from 2023. Kristella Sikk matched her finish from last year, taking a share of 33rd place, while Kirke Kiige finished tied for 65th.<\/p>\n

Players and coach Egert P\u00f5ldma on the tournament<\/p>\n

Iiris M\u00e4tas: \u201cThis was my second time competing in the R&A Girls\u2019 Amateur Championship, and I was very happy with the tournament. The course was in very good condition, which made it particularly enjoyable to play. The greens were quite heavily sloped, but fortunately they were not as fast as we had initially expected. Compared with last year, the fairways were not as narrow, which gave us a little more room for error. I was also very happy with my own game. I played well in qualifying and made it into the top 64. In the first match, I played against a local 13-year-old girl. I shot three under par and won the match 5&3. In the second match, I faced a Spaniard and we both played very strong and closely matched golf \u2014 we were both four under par. Unfortunately, her excellent putting became decisive in the second half of the match, as she made five birdies over an eight-hole stretch. Overall, I was very happy with the tournament. I gained a lot of valuable experience, enjoyed the whole event and felt that I was able to play good golf in a strong field. A tournament like this gives me a lot of motivation and confidence going forward. I really hope I can come back next year!\u201d<\/p>\n

Kristella Sikk: \u201cOnce again, it was a really enjoyable tournament and I was happy to be able to take part. It was a links course, which isn\u2019t the most familiar type of course for me, but it was an interesting change and quite fun at times. At the same time, the course was demanding and I had to think several shots ahead, because one wrong decision or a shot in the wrong place could make the next shot very difficult. Overall, my game was fairly consistent throughout the week. On some days my chipping wasn\u2019t quite there, while on other days it worked really well. I didn\u2019t have any major problems with my putting \u2014 the ball just didn\u2019t always want to go in. My driving was excellent throughout the tournament and I was very happy with it. My playing partners were lovely every day, and my match-play opponent also played very good golf. (Kristella faced the same Spaniard who went on to beat Iiris M\u00e4tas in the next round \u2014 ed.) Overall, I was happy with my matches, gained another good experience and am already looking forward to next year. The goal is to go further than simply qualifying for the match-play stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kirke Kiige: \u201cIt was a really great experience to compete in such a big and prestigious tournament. The course was a challenging links-style course and you had to learn the greens well to make the ball stop in the right place. Because of the busy competition schedule, I haven\u2019t had much time to work on the technical side of my swing, and this week I also struggled with my approaches to the greens. The greens were very heavily sloped, which made the short game quite difficult. Fortunately, the course itself wasn\u2019t particularly long, although some holes became quite challenging in the strong wind. The tournament gave me a lot of valuable experience and showed me what I need to work on more in my game going forward. It was also a great opportunity to test myself against strong competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Egert P\u00f5ldma: \u201cThe overall level of golfers has risen considerably over time. The best U18 players are now very strong in every aspect of the game. I\u2019m glad that our girls get to see and experience where they currently stand compared with players their own age \u2014 what they are already good enough at and where they need to improve. I hope that taking part in tournaments like this will increase the players\u2019 motivation and encourage them to put even more effort into their training. As a coach, these competitions are also important for me, as they provide valuable feedback and help us determine how to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The R&A Girls\u2019 Amateur Championship in Scotland came to an end for the Estonian players yesterday. In the battle for a place in the last 16, Iiris M\u00e4tas produced a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":102284,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[42,60],"class_list":["post-104358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eng","tag-koondis","tag-voistlused"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104358"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104360,"href":"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104358\/revisions\/104360"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.golf.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}