Christiaan Maas was on a different level in Singapore.
The senior at Texas was dominant all week at the World Amateur Team Championship, taking home the individual title by 10 shots at Tanah Merah Country Club, finishing at 22 under par to guide South Africa to its first Eisenhower Trophy. Only Jon Rahm has finished lower individually after 72 holes of stroke play in the competition than Maas did Saturday, marking a historic week for the South African team that included Texas teammate Daniel Bennett and Charl Barnard.
“I’m relieved, happy. It’s nice to see that my game can travel. It’s a long flight over here, different conditions,” Maas, the third-highest ranked player in the field this week, said. “It’s a long week. I think building a lead, everybody thinks it’s all happy, but it also comes with a lot of pressure… Being in a team event, it can quickly go the other way.”
Maas, who shot rounds of 66-66-65-69 to top Australia’s Declan O’Donavan by double digits, led from the outset. He made only three bogeys all week and helped South Africa to its first podium finish in 40 years and first win in 34 WATC competitions.
“Yeah, just elated,” Gavin Groves, South Africa’s captain, said. “Really proud. The guys played unbelievable golf the whole week. It’s just been such a great experience being here. This has been a long time coming… it’s been a lot of near misses, a lot of very talented teams.”
Australia finished eight shots behind South Africa, with England jumping Mexico in the final round to steal the final spot on the podium. The United States, which sat T-32 of 36 teams after the opening round, shot 5 under each of the final three days to finish T-10, continuing its streak of top-10 finishes in the WATC, though that’s the lowest finish by any USA team in the WATC. The USA has won the Eisenhower Trophy 14 times in 34 competitions.
The WATC is a biennial competition comprised of two or three golfers from 36 countries playing four days of stroke play with the two lowest scores every day being counted. Last week, the American women won in Singapore thanks to a tiebreaker.
The 2027 World Amateur Team Championship will be held in Morocco at Royal Golf Dar Es Salam.
