Denmark Ace Helps Them to a Two Shot Lead in Mixed Team Event at Youth Olympics

Youth Olympic Games - Nanjing 2014 - John Paul PULTZ PINNERUP AXELSEN and Emily Kristine PEDERSEN, Team DEN
IOC/Xi Yang

Denmark carded a seven-under-par 65, that included a hole-in-one, to take a two shot lead over Korea after the second round of the Mixed Team event at the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympics at Zhongshan International Golf Club today.

John Paul Pultz Pinnerup Axelsen holed his tee shot with an 8-iron at the 163-yard third hole to help his team move to the top of the leaderboard on 14-under-par after today’s foursomes round.

It is the second hole-in-one in the Youth Olympics after Canada’s Tony Gil scored an ace at the same hole six days earlier.

“It was amazing, I couldn’t have hit it better,” said 16-year-old John. “It had three metres of draw, landed two inches before the hole and fell in. It was just perfect.”

John and his team mate Emily Kristine Pedersen got off to a great start, with two birdies and a hole-in-one eagle in the first three holes, and went out in 29 before consolidating their round with a level-par inward half.

“It’s good we understand, respect and support each other,” said 18-year-old Emily. “We can joke when we are not hitting and we can be serious saying, ‘Come on John we can do this’.”

Despite their lead, the young Danes, who both enjoyed top ten finishes in last week’s individual events, were cautious about their prospects in the final individual round tomorrow. “Anything can happen if one of us plays badly.” said Emily. “But of course, it would be so fun, so great if we have a medal together,” added John.

First round leaders Korea shot a one-under-par 71, to tie for second place with Sweden at 12-under-par. Lee Soyoung and Youm Eun Ho birdied the seventh and the 16th holes but dropped a shot at the fourth hole.

“We tried really hard not to think about the scores and the leaderboard,” said Youm, “We just enjoyed ourselves. It was a little bit difficult but we really enjoyed the round.”

Lee, who won the Gold Medal in the Women’s Individual Stroke Play last week, said this is the first time the two of them have played in the foursomes format. “We trust each other because even if I make a mistake I know he can save it. That’s the way we enjoy the game.”

“We will try to have more fun tomorrow and try to enjoy playing with each other. It’s going to be interesting tomorrow.”

Sweden made seven birdies but dropped two shots in their five-under-par round of 67 today. “We played pretty good today, although we had two bogeys,” said Marcus Kinhult. ”We will try to build on this tomorrow and see what happens.”

Chinese Taipei and Australia are three strokes off the lead on 11-under-par for the tournament and both teams were satisfied with their second rounds. “We co-operated well today,” said Yu Chun-An from Chinese Taipei. “We gave each other back-up which gave us a lot of opportunities. She (Cheng Ssu-Chia) drives more accurately than me but I was hitting the approaches to the green well today.”

Australians Brett Coletta and Elizabeth Elmassian also felt they were gelling well together as a team. “We started with a double bogey today but we managed to come back with three consecutive birdies on the front nine,” said Brett. “We holed a lot of putts between us which makes a big difference.”

For the full leaderboard in the Youth Olympic Games Mixed Team Competition please visit:

http://www.nanjing2014.org/en/en_sports/GamestimeResults.htm.

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