HANOI—Thailand’s Natthakritta Vongtaveelap edged Lois Kaye Go in a playoff to douse dashing the Philippines’s gold medal hopes in women’s golf team match play on Tuesday at the Heron Lake Golf Course in Vinh Phuc.
Vongtaveelap missed a six-foot birdie putt on the par-five No. 9 but Go flubbed her par-bid from almost the same distance to leading send the Thais to a gold medal duel with the Malaysians.
Go trounced Eila Galitsky, 3&1, to force a playoff after Vongtaveelap foiled young Rianne Malixi, 2&1, in their side of the match play.
In a duel of the two countries’ top players, Vongtaveelap out-steadied Go, member of the team that won the gold in the 2019 SEA Games at Luisita in Tarlac, splitting the fairway in the playoff as Go drove into the left rough.
Although the Thai dumped her second shot into the right greenside bunker, she blasted to within birdie range but missed the putt. Go, on the other hand, hit the fairway on her second shot but came up short on her approach then muffed her par-bid from six feet, enabling Vongtaveelap to clinch the win for Thailand and stay on course for a gold medal sweep after a dominant stint in individual competition.
Malixi, whose campaign is backed by International Container Terminal Services Inc., held her ground against Vongtaveelap majority of their semifinal clash but just couldn’t pull it off in the end.
The setback thus dropped the fourth-seeded Philippines to a bronze medal duel with No. 2 Singapore, which yielded a 0-2 defeat to third ranked Malaysia in the other semifinal clash.
Mirabel Ting and individual bronze medalist Jeneath Wong eased past Suanne Loh and individual silver medalist Aloysa Mabutas as Malaysia arranged a gold medal clash with fancied Thailand.
The two countries will also dispute the men’s team gold after Thailand crushed Singapore, 3-0, and Malaysia nipped Indonesia, 2-1.
Individual gold medalist Ervin Chang also remained on track for a sweep as leads Nateeshvar Ganesh and Marcus Chuen Lim against the crack Thai troika of Ratchanon Chantananuwat, individual bronze medalist Weerawish Narkprachar and Asit Areephan.
