South Korea once again proved their dominance in the Queen Sirikit Cup by retaining the championship in the three-day ladies team golf competition that ended Friday.
The champions collected a total of 28-under-par 416, followed by Taiwan with 18-under-par 426 and Japan with 9-under-par 435.
In addition to the trophy for the team competition, South Korean squad members Jang Ha-na and Kim Sei-young also snatched individual honors by occupying the top two spots on the leaderboard.
They eased through, but not before a bout of nervousness set in.
Sitting atop the standings from the start had given rise to a certain burden for the team, they admitted, as they were already eyeing the trophy, named in honor of H.M. Queen Sirikit of Thailand and first contested in 1979.
Jang, who finished with a 72 on the third day to tally a 15-under 207, said she did not play as well as she had in the opening two days because she kept thinking about how to keep the lead.
"I felt nervous. I had to consider the team and individual scores. I tried to make more birdies, but instead, I made double bogeys," she told The Jakarta Post.
Her birdie on the first hole was wiped negated by a double bogey on the third. She came back strong by sinking three consecutive birdies on the next holes, but went on to bogey the seventh hole before saving the day with two birdies on the eighth and 18th hole.
Kim finished with a 1-under to give her a total individual score of 13-under-par 209, while teammate Park Sun-young notched up a 2-under-par 220, which put her in ninth place.
In the individual ranking, Hsuan Yu Yao of Taiwan secured third position after carding a 3-under to amass a total of 11-under-par 211.
"Today, the ball mostly fell not too far from the holes, but it just slipped away and did not hit them. It's not that my putting was bad, it's just a matter of luck," she said.
Indonesia, with a final total of 14-over 458, ended up in ninth spot, two places lower than last year's finish.
Marcella Pranovia's improved performance on the third day failed to overhaul the team's position.
The 14-year-old carded six birdies to cover three bogeys for a total score of 5-over-par 227, while Made Dita Widyantari hit a 7-over.
Ines Putri Tjiptadi, the runner-up in the Faldo Series for girls under 21 in China, looked disappointed with her performance after finishing the day with a 7-over.
"I suffered from dehydration, and starting from the 14th hole, I kept making bogeys and double bogeys," she said, blaming her dismal performance on exhaustion after having played two consecutive events.
Indonesia's only professional female golfer, Lidya Ivana Jaya, said recently that lack of competition had led Indonesia's female golfers to lag behind their regional peers.
She said that with the country hosting only the Indonesia Ladies Amateur Open as an international event, talented golfers had to go overseas to seek more challenges.
This presented them with financial burdens, she added.
