Montgomerie leads Europe to narrow Royal Trophy victory

Thailand: Europe pulled out a victory against Asia on Sunday in a tightly-fought Royal Trophy matchplay event, with Henrik Stenson picking up a shot on the final hole to secure an 8 1/2 to 7 1/2 victory.

Stenson's singles opponent Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand had a 15-foot putt on the 18th to take his match and square the three-day event at 8-8 to force a playoff, but the ball came up inches from the hole. The Swede, ranked seventh in the world, then sank a seven-foot putt to square the match and give Europe victory in the three-day event.

"All credits to my team for fighting. We all contributed at least one point this week," European captain Colin Montgomerie said. "Congratulations to my team. Good start for European golf."

Asia's non-playing captain Naomichi "Joe" Ozaki captain praised the Europeans but said he was "pleased" with his team's performance. He said he remained convinced until the end the two teams would end in a playoff.

"Actually, I had a vision that Thongchai would make a putt on the 18th hole and we would go to the playoff," Ozaki said. "Unfortunately it didn't happen."

Early lead

The roller-coaster match saw Asia take the early lead on Friday but fall behind after Saturday's four-ball competition.

Asia entered the final day a point down but appeared poised for a victory after claiming 3 1/2 points to 1 1/2 over the first five singles matches.

Charlie Wie of South Korea, Koumei Oda of Japan and Jeev Milkha Singh of India won their matches respectively against Simon Dyson of England, Alexander Noren of Sweden and Robert Karlsson of Sweden.

But then Spain's Pablo Martin and Denmark's Soren Kjeldsen won their matches, setting the stage for the final match.

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