06/22/2007
- Canada struggles at Beacon Hall to fall back to third -
Aurora, Ont. (RCGA) – After three rounds of steady play at the challenging Beacon Hall Golf Club, the United States team of Jonathan Moore, Webb Simpson, Stacey Lewis and Jennie Lee looks poised to win the country’s first ever Copa de las Americas.
The American foursome fired an impressive team-total 6-over par under blustery conditions Friday to head into Saturday’s final round with a commanding 23-stroke lead over Argentina.
After vaulting into second overall following Thursday’s round, the collective struggles of Canadian teammates Graham Hill of Bright’s Grove, Ont., Keven Fortin-Simard of Roberval, Que., Laura Matthews of Essex, Ont. and Stephanie Sherlock of Barrie, Ont. drops the two-time defending champions into third, 33-shots back of the US team.
In the men’s division, the Argentina duo of Alan Wagner and Luciano Dodda came out firing Friday to finish at 3-under for the day and 6-over through the opening three rounds. Wagner continued his stellar play at Beacon Hall with his round of 2-under to head into Saturday as the low individual at 6-under for the championship. The US team of Simpson and Moore finished at 2-over for the day and find themselves three strokes back of the Argentines while Mexico moved into third, 11 shots back. After a scorching second-round 69, Hill struggled to a 5-over 77 Friday while Simard finished with an 80 to drop the Canadians back to fourth at 21-over for the championship.
On the women’s side, the United States takes a commanding 21-stroke lead into Saturday’s final round after teammates Stacey Lewis and Jennie Lee finished a combined 4-over on the day. Lewis shot the women’s round of the day with a 2-under 70 under to sit atop the individual leaderboard at 8-over for the championship while Lee is second at 12-over. After climbing back into contention within nine shots of their American counterparts, the Canadian pairing of Sherlock (+7) and Matthews (+9) stumbled off pace with a third-round, team total 16-over par to head into Saturday’s final round at 41-over for the tournament. Rounding out the top-five are Argentina (+46), Columbia (+47) and Mexico (+47).
The 2007 Copa de las Americas has been a special homecoming of sorts for Tom Relf, captain of the Mexican team. Relf, who works as Director of Golf for Briggs Ranch Golf Academy in San Antonio, is originally a native of Brandon, Man. His Mexican connection originally began giving instruction at his San Antonio Golf Academy to students from Monterrey and developed into an invitation to help the Mexican Golf Association develop their National Team Program. A CPGA member since 1988, Relf has directed the Mexican National Team Program for the past four years.
The following are third-round scores for Friday, June 22 at the 2007 Copa de las Americas:
Overall Team Results – Round 3
1 USA 294 +6 +29
2 Argentina 306 +18 +52
3 Canada 317 +29 +62
4 Mexico 299 +11 +65
5 Colombia 316 +28 +77
6 Peru 325 +37 +103
7 Trinidad and Tobago 331 +43 +111
8 Puerto Rico 321 +33 +116
9 Guatemala 334 +46 +158
10 Dominican Republic 366 +78 +207
Men’s Team Results – Round 3
1 Argentina – Men 141 -3 +6
2 USA – Men 146 +2 +9
3 Mexico – Men 147 +3 +17
4 Canada – Men 157 +13 +21
5 Colombia – Men 158 +14 +30
6 Guatemala – Men 154 +10 +31
7 Puerto Rico – Men 157 +13 +36
8 El Salvador 159 +15 +39
9 Ecuador – Men 162 +18 +45
10 Trinidad and Tobago – Men 166 +22 +46
11 Peru – Men 161 +17 +48
12 Dominican Republic – Men 178 +34 +54
13 Uruguay – Men 163 +19 +56
14 Venezuela – Men 168 +24 +73
15 Costa Rica – Men 170 +26 +80
Women’s Team Results – Round 3
1 USA – Women 148 +4 +20
2 Canada – Women 160 +16 +41
3 Argentina – Women 165 +21 +46
4 Colombia – Women 158 +14 +47
5 Mexico – Women 152 +8 +48
6 Peru - Women 164 +20 +55
7 Trinidad and Tobago - Women 165 +21 +65
8 Puerto Rico - Women 164 +20 +80
9 Guatemala - Women 180 +36 +127
10 Dominican Republic - Women 188 +44 +153
Individual Men Results - Round 3
1 Alan Wagner Argentina 38 32 70 -2 -6
T2 Andres Felipe Echavarria Botero Colombia 37 37 74 +2 +4
T2 Jonathan Moore USA 36 38 74 +2 +4
4 Webb Simpson USA 37 35 72 E +5
T5 Julian Valenciana Mexico 37 35 72 E +6
T5 Graham Hill Canada 38 39 77 +5 +6
7 José Toledo Guatemala 37 38 75 +3 +7
8 Rafael Campos Puerto Rico 38 40 78 +6 +9
9 Yoshio Yamamoto Mexico 36 39 75 +3 +11
10 Luciano Dodda Argentina 36 35 71 -1 +12
T11 Rafael Claux Peru 39 42 81 +9 +15
T11 Keven Fortin-Simard Canada 42 38 80 +8 +15
13 Herbert Day El Salvador 41 41 82 +10 +18
T14 Robert Moore El Salvador 39 38 77 +5 +21
T14 Juan Felipe Aegerter Ecuador 42 39 81 +9 +21
T16 Pablo Carrere Uruguay 38 38 76 +4 +22
T16 Ben Martin Trinidad & Tobago 43 40 83 +11 +22
T18 Juan Antonio Serrano Ecuador 36 45 81 +9 +24
T18 Carlos Baynes Trinidad and Tobago 39 44 83 +11 +24
T18 Sebastian Fernandez Guatemala 40 39 79 +7 +24
T18 Carlos Benjamin Arias Dominican Republic 45 42 87 +15 +24
22 Marcelo Rozo Rengifo Colombia 43 41 84 +12 +26
23 Alfred Colon Puerto Rico 41 38 79 +7 +27
24 Francisco Santoni Dominican Republic 47 44 91 +19 +30
25 Philip Reiser Peru 39 41 80 +8 +33
26 Pablo Faget Uruguay 42 45 87 +15 +34
T27 Daniele Vittorio Cabriles Impera Venezuela 42 40 82 +10 +36
T27 Manuel Jimenez Costa Rica 41 42 83 +11 +36
29 Pascual Andrés Cicenia Venezuela 42 44 86 +14 +37
30 Antonio Bruna Jr. Costa Rica 42 45 87 +15 +44
Individual Women Results - Round 3
1 Stacy Lewis USA 34 36 70 -2 +8
2 Jennie Lee USA 35 43 78 +6 +12
3 Stephanie Sherlock Canada 39 40 79 +7 +13
4 Paola Moreno Perez Colombia 40 36 76 +4 +17
5 Kiara Hayashida Peru 38 43 81 +9 +21
6 Victoria Tanco Argentina 40 39 79 +7 +22
7 Diana Cantu Mexico 37 37 74 +2 +23
8 Agostina Parmigiani Argentina 43 43 86 +14 +24
9 Liliana Alvarez Mexico 40 38 78 +6 +25
10 Laura Matthews Canada 41 40 81 +9 +28
11 Maria José Uribe Duran Colombia 44 38 82 +10 +30
12 Monifa Sealy Trinidad & Tobago 41 42 83 +11 +32
13 Martine de Gannes Trinidad and Tobago 44 38 82 +10 +33
T14 Kyle Roig Puerto Rico 37 41 78 +6 +34
T14 Maria Salinas Peru 40 43 83 +11 +34
16 Patricia Garcia Puerto Rico 45 41 86 +14 +46
17 Anne Mette Brunn Dominican Republic 43 41 84 +12 +52
18 Mariana Rodas Guatemala 40 47 87 +15 +55
19 Maria José Camey Guatemala 46 47 93 +21 +72
20 Alba Garcia Dominican Republic 58 46 104 +32 +101
Saturday’s final round of the Copa de las America gets underway at 8:00 am at Beacon Hall Club.
Conducted this year by the Royal Canadian Golf Association (RCGA) and hosted for the first time ever in Canada, The 2007 Copa de las Americas welcomes teams representing 15 countries from North, Central and South America as well as the Caribbean.
The third bi-annual Copa de las Americas will see teams compete over four rounds of stroke play with both team and individual titles up for grabs. The event is proudly supported by both the R&A and the United States Golf Association (USGA) through funding to offset the travel costs of participating countries.
For more information including a full field of competitors, start times and post-round results please visit the Royal Canadian Golf Association website at www.rcga.org.
ABOUT THE RCGA NATIONAL TEAM PROGRAM
The RCGA delivers a world-class high performance program through its National Team initiative. The National Team Program annually identifies the best 32-35 players through published selection criteria. The program, comprised of both a National Junior Team and National Amateur Team, is designed to offer players a year-round program incorporating state-of-the-art coaching, sport science expertise, training camps and world-class competition. The RCGA allocates over $1 million of its resources annually to the National Team Program encompassing strength and conditioning, sports psychology, nutrition, biomechanics and technique development. Players who are selected to the National Amateur and National Junior Teams will also represent “Team Canada” at 6-10 internationally-sanctioned golf competitions throughout the year. The intent of this aggressive program is to aid Canada’s top up-and-coming amateur players in all areas of their development to help Canada produce the best golfers in the world.
ABOUT THE ROYAL CANADIAN GOLF ASSOCIATION
The Royal Canadian Golf Association (RCGA) is the governing body of golf in Canada, representing 377,000 members at 1650 clubs across the country. Some of the RCGA’s core services include the Rules of Golf, handicapping and course rating, support of turfgrass and environmental research, the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame and Museum and CN Future Links, Canada’s national junior golf program. In addition, the RCGA conducts Canada’s most prestigious golf championships. The Canadian Open and CN Canadian Women’s Open attract the best professional golfers in the world, while six regional junior championships, 10 national amateur championships and the CN Canadian Women’s Tour showcase the best of Canadian golf. For more information please visit www.rcga.org.
-30-
For more information please contact:
Dan Pino
Manager, Media and Public Relations
Royal Canadian Golf Association
(t) 1-800-263-0009 x 406
(c) 416-434-5525
(e) dpino@rcga.org
