North America won the second edition of the JLG Continents Cup at the Kennemer in Zandvoort but the Europeans performed much better than last year when they had no chance against the American giants.
Europe had high hopes for victory after the ELD RIWAL European Open, when six Europeans reached the final round. Winner Antti Saleva was on the front page of every Finnish newspaper and even his father came over to watch his son perform.
A swinging Caribbean band, attractive cheerleaders and the national anthems created the proper atmosphere and then the battle between the continents was on its way.
At the Four Ball Better Ball game, the Americans took a 3-0 lead before Andreas Persson with a distance of 345 meters gave Europe its first point. After the four Four-Ball-Better-Ball matches North America was leading with 3-1.
Joe Miller was the big star at the Foursomes matches. The European record holder hit a distance of 386 meters and was together with Atti Saleva merely responsible for a 2-2 draw.
This score gave America a 5-3 lead which meant that the Singles would decide who would win the JLG Continents Cup.
David Mobley hit 386 meters but Europe came back strongly and even took 4-3 lead.
Therefore the score was 8-7 in favor of North America after the last but one Single match.
So the last Single was to decide if Europe could enforce a draw.
Allen McDougall, a banker from Scottsdale, held his nerves and beat Mikko Pirinen from Finland. In doing so, he won the Cup for his continent with the score of 9-7 in favor of North America.
The competitors hugged each other after this marvelous Longdriving battle.
The JLG Continents Cup was presented by Officer of Public Affairs of the American embassy Kenneth Roy and Robbert Monteban, marketing director of JLG.
This Continents Cup edition brought everything that makes Longdriving such an exciting sport: tension, emotions and a great audience that intensely enjoyed the spectacle.
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