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Ligue de Paris leads following day one of French-American Challenge

GREENWICH, Conn. (October 18, 2016) – While the MGA/WMGA and the Ligue de Paris stood all-square following Tuesday morning’s foursomes in the 18th French American Challenge Matches, the visitors took the afternoon four-ball by a 4-to-1 margin to earn a 6.5 to 3.5 overall lead at The Stanwich Club. The competition will conclude on Wednesday with 10 singles matches beginning at 8 a.m.

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Lopsided matches decided the first two points of the day, as Christophe Ravetto and Adrien Pendaries defeated Stewart Hagestad of Deepdale and Ethan Ng of Fiddler’s Elbow, 5-and-3. However, Paul Pastore—making his debut in MGA international competition—and Darin Goldstein of Noyac took a 4-and-3 victory over Benjamin Morin and Gary Boitour, their win being bolstered by a birdie and an eagle on Nos. 13 and 14, respectively.

Brian Komline of Black Oak and Trevor Randolph of Arcola rallied back to get a point in the lead match. Pierre Mazier and Aymeric Laussot held a 1-up advantage through 15, but wins for the New Jersey tandem on Nos. 16-17 quickly gave them the 1-up lead heading to the last. The hole was halved with pars, giving the MGA/WMGA another point.

Meanwhile, both ladies foursome matches were pushed to the 18th hole. Tara Fleming of New Jersey National and Kyra Cox of Centennial also put together a charge, as they won Nos. 14, 16 and 17 to square the match against veteran Morgane Bazin de Jessey and Perrine Gouin-Petit. However, the Ligue de Paris tandem came through with par on the last to clinch another point. Wins on Nos. 12-14 helped MGA/WMGA’s Kelly Sim of Alpine and Ina Kim of Deepdale dig out of a three-hole deficit and square their match against Mathilde Claisse and Anyssia Herbaut. The final four holes were halved, resulting in a half-point for both sides and a 2.5 to 2.5 total after morning play.

While the MGA/WMGA was once again able to erase several deficits in afternoon matches, the Ligue de Paris squad was took four matches with clutch play down the stretch. Hagestad and Ng rebounded in their afternoon match, this time coming out on the victorious side of a 5-and-3 result. The pair combined for seven birdies en route to the big win, including four of their final six holes. “We got off to a slow start this morning, but we were pretty confident going into the afternoon that we’d play a bit better,” said Hagestad. “I said as soon as the Met Amateur was done, if we were elected to the French American that I wanted Ethan to be my partner,” Hagestad also reported, recalling the memorable 38-hole championship match back in early August.

Claisse and Herbaut claimed a 3-and-2 victory in the No. 5 match over Kim and Sim, while Laussot and Pierre Mazier held off Pastore and Goldstein—who fought to square the match after being down three holes in the early going—by taking a 2-and-1 win. Fleming and Cox once again went to the 18th hole, but Bazin de Jessey’s par sealed the 1-up win for Ligue de Paris and set the final margin at 6.5 to 3.5.

The Stanwich Club’s demand for quality golf from tee to green and varying hole lengths presents a quality test and setup for the team match play event. The course played to 7,135 yards for the men and 6,114 for the women during the first day of play.

Wednesday’s 10 singles matches begin at 8 a.m., with the final match going off at 9:30 a.m. Live scoring will be available for every match while additional updates may be found on MGA social media including Twitter and Instagram.

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