Oct. 25, 2010
WACO, Texas - Baylor men's golf junior Joakim Mikkelsen will represent his native Norway at the 2010 World Amateur Team Championship Oct. 28-31 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Mikkelsen, along with Espen Kofstad and Elias Bertheussen, will compete against 69 other countries for the Eisenhower Trophy. This year, 70 men's teams consisting of a three-golfer lineup, will play 72 holes of stroke play with the two best scores of each round counting toward the team total. Each team will play a different course for the first two days of competition. After the completion of the second round, teams will be reorganized based on scores and will play the remaining two days on each course.
Through three fall tournaments this season, the Drammen, Norway, native leads the Bears in percentage of rounds counted, stroke average (73.22), score vs. par (1.89) and top-25 finishes (three). In his two-plus seasons at Baylor, Mikkelsen has posted top-25 finishes in 20 of 30 career events.
The World Amateur Team Championships (WATC) were founded in 1958. The tournaments are competitions that take place every two years and are organized by the International Golf Federation (IGF) and the national federations of golf from the host nation in every edition. The IGF includes the national federations of golf in more than 110 countries and is the international federation for golf for the International Olympic Committee. It was founded to encourage the international development of the game and to use golf as a means to foster friendship and sportsmanship around the world.
The WATC is one of the means used to achieve this goal. Approved by the President of The United States of America, Dwight D. Eisenhower, the inaugural tournament took place at The Old Course at St. Andrews in 1958. Having celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Eisenhower Trophy in Adelaide, Australia, the championships will visit Argentina in 2010.
Teams of men and women come from all over the world to compete for the Eisenhower Trophy (men) and Espirito Santo Trophy (women) within three different zones: Asia Pacific, America and Europe & Africa. Players must be amateur golfers and follow the rules of The R&A or United States Golf Association. They must also be citizens of the country they represent.
Live scoring, results and statistics for the event are available at www.golfstat.com.
