MALTA SICILY FRIENDSHIP TOURNAMENT

05/05/2008

The Royal Malta Golf Club has just hosted the return match of the Malta-Sicily Friendship Tournament. Under the auspices of the respective National Olympic Committees, the first match was played in September 2007 at the Le Madonie Golf Club in Palermo and was won 5&4 by the Maltese players Nicholas Borg and Peter Satariano over their opponents Alessandro Leonardi and Sebastiano Torrisi.

Nicholas and Peter are part of the Malta Golf Association’s National Team and were confirmed to be the players that will represent Malta for the return ‘home’ match. However, Peter had to withdraw for personal reasons and Andrew Borg commendably accepted the Association’s request to come in as a replacement. The Sicilians too had a change in team formation. Sebastiano was replaced by a fourteen year old Antonio La Rocca.

A technical meeting ahead of the competition determined that the competition format would be two four ball better ball match play games on handicap allowance. With Andrew as the back marker, his brother and fellow competitor received 6 shots whilst the Sicilians received 2 and 9 shots respectively.

The first match was played on Friday 2nd May with a start time of 14.00 hours. The Maltese won the first hole with a net birdie. The second and third holes were halved with net pars. Three consecutive net birdies saw Malta 4-up at the end of the 6th hole. The 7th and 9th holes were halved with net pars whilst the 8th and 10th holes were won by the Sicilians with a net par and a net birdie respectively to bring the match to 2-up for Malta. Malta won the 11th with a net birdie; the 12th was won by the Sicilians with a net eagle which was quickly returned in kind by a similar score on the 13th. With 3-up and five holes to go and no handicap strokes to give, the Maltese looked comfortable. But their opponents had other ideas and proceeded to win the next three holes with 3 consecutive net parts to level the match with two holes to go. Andrew and Nick did not allow this to deter them and won the last two holes with yet two more net birdies.

The second match was played on Saturday with a start time of 14.30 hours and proved to be a more level match with both teams making some remarkable shots and also some surprising errors to leave the match on edge until the very end.

Malta won the 1st hole with a birdie to which the Sicilians responded with another net birdie to claim the second. The 3rd was halved with a net par and the 4th won by the Sicilians with a net birdie. The 5th was then halved again with a net par. Malta won the 6th and the 7th with a net eagle and a net birdie; halved the 8th with a net par; lost the 9th with a net birdie; halved the 10th with a net par and lost the 11th with a net birdie and won the 12th with a net birdie to leave the match level after twelve holes.

A net birdie for a win from the Sicilians on the 13th; two successive net pars on the subsequent holes for halves and a net birdie for a win from the Maltese and the match was still level with two holes to go. Three of the four players failed to make the 17th green with their drives and all chipped on leaving birdie chances. Alesaandro’s drive found the apron in between the greenside bunkers and his determination transferred into a massive putt for an eagle to take his team 1-up with one hole to go. Malta needed to win the last hole to secure a halved match and an overall win for Malta over the two days. The Sicilians put their drive out on the first fairway and opened a window opportunity for Malta. However with emotions running high and with both the Sicilians finding the green with their 2nd shot, the hole was halved with the match going to the Sicilians 1-up.

At the end of play, Malta had won the first match and the Sicilians won the second. In the true spirit of the game, it was decided to terminate the encounter at this stage and half the match according to the format of the Ryder Cup. The overall winner was the game and the spirit of friendship that was the underlying concept of the tournament.