Namibian amateur golfers Johannes Damon and Hylton Villet were over the weekend crowned 2022 Windhoek Lager International Pairs world champions in Mijas, Spain.
The International Pairs is a global competition for amateur club golfers billed as “the world’s largest golf tournament.” The event was last held in 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Damon and Villet defeated the Shah brothers from Kenya by a single point in a championship played on the better-ball stableford format.
The Namibian pair scored 91 points, a point ahead of Kush and Chand Shah, while Joao Valentine and Pedro Mansilha from Portugal finished in third place.
By winning the championship, Damon became the first golfer to win the amateur golf title for the second time. He won the men’s title for the first time in Penina, Portugal in 2019 when he partnered with Joseph Martin.
An interview shared with Nampa by the event’s organisers quoted Damon as saying he was extremely proud to become the first golfer to win the International Pairs for a second time.
“I am very happy with our achievement and very happy that we could make Namibia proud. It was a very tough golf course, especially over the second round, but we stuck to our guns and when we finished on the 18th hole, I was confident that we had done enough to secure the title,” said Damon.
Other Namibian teams that competed in the men’s pairs were Andrew van Schalkwyk and Hein Lintvelt, who finished ninth, while Lebeus Kangandjela and Edwin Kutara were 12th out of 38 teams.
In the women’s category, Brenda Lens and Zandra Kruger finished in the third position behind two South African teams, while Lydia Lumley and Julia Ludick Hart finished fourth.
Lens who plays out of the Omeya Country Club, carded a hole-in-one, the first in the history of the tournament, when she aced the par-3 eighth hole on the Camp Americas Course.
Namibia Breweries Limited Global Sponsorship and Events Manager, Danie Keulder said they are proud of all Namibian golfers’ performance at the International Pairs World tournament.
“It is fantastic to see the success of our amateur golfers at international level and as a brand, we are extremely proud to be associated with amateur golf in Namibia,” he said.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
