Amateurs dominate the 2023 National Golf Championship
On the final scoreboard with the par72 field in Hai Phong, Nguyen Nhat Long, 20, reached -4 to win the men's cup, and Le Chuc An, 15 years old, lifted the women's cup with +5 points. The male runner-up belongs to Nguyen Anh Minh (-3), while the female runner-up is Doan Xuan Khue Minh (+13).
All four faces mentioned above are amateurs and will represent Vietnamese golf at the Asian Games in Hangzhou next month.
Last year, when the national golf championship - Vietnam National Championship - took place at the same venue, Anh Minh and Khue Minh were the champions. At that time, Anh Minh took the top of the table from round 2, went to -5 with a five-stroke lead at the end of round 3 and then entered the finish line with many drops through 16 holes but birdie the remaining two holes to turn -5. became the winning milestone and dropped seven strokes from the runner-up – amateur Do Quang Khanh.
Last period, Anh Minh, after three rounds, regained his old competitive advantage, leading with a -5 point, but only one stroke away from the next Nhat Long.
On the closing day, Nhat Long was the most ominous opponent for Anh Minh in defending the cup. With the same last turn, Nhat Long fell to -3 after half a round while Anh Minh was still -5.
However, Nhat Long happened to be only one stroke behind when Anh Minh had -4 due to a bogey on the 10th hole, then thanks to a birdie on hole 13 to join the -4 with the defending champion.
In the rest, Nhat Long kept -4, Anh Minh returned to -3 after bogey on the 17th hole and kept par on the last hole.
In the women's branch, after finishing the penultimate stage, defending champion Khue Minh finished second with a score of +9 and Chuc An led at +2. At the end of the deciding round, this order remained unchanged, but Chuc An dropped to +5, Khue Minh +13.
Because the organizers only awarded medals to the top 3, Doan Van Dinh, professional (pro) and amateur Nguyen Tuan Anh, with +5, had to play the extra hole. The duel ended after a turn at the 18th hole with the victory for Tuan Anh.
The Vietnam National Championship bonus fund spends one billion dong for men, 200 million dong for women and is only awarded to the pro category. According to that regulation, Van Dinh won the championship of 180 million VND, Ngo Bao Nghi got the first 60 million VND despite finishing third in the women's final.
