In dominant fashion, the United States were victorious in Thursday’s three team battle. This competition was eagerly anticipated by the athletes and fans from Cambodia and beyond. This was definitely not a spontaneous matchup based on our noticing that we had six players divided evenly among three countries. And it is not true that we had to recruit a waiting tuktuk driver to fill out the Cambodia team. This was a truly important event. Best disc doubles was the format.

All three teams parred the first hole, with both Americans missing a relatively easy putt for birdie. On the second, Team England could not string together the shots they needed and took a bogey, and fell to third place behind the Americans and Cambodians who tapped in for par. The deficit was short lived though as the Brits were the only team able to birdie the tunnel hole at hole three on a beautiful putt by Sam Allen, evening the comp up once again. The English and Cambodian teams had to scramble to match America’s par on hole 4 but did so and we were all knotted up heading hole five, the dogleg of death. In singles play there are not many birdies to be found here, but in doubles, it’s usually a must. This day only Pich’s putt found the bamboo basket and the Cambodians took the lead to Rong’s House.

On hole 6, lost discs are almost as common as birdies and the American team tried to pull off both on this hole. They only succeeded on getting the birdie though, with John Spot’s opener landing on the hill of the raised basket and Jared’s drive falling just short of the Lake of Loss. With no other team able to match, the Americans found themselves tied for the lead once again with the home country favorites. The Brits lost another stroke parring the generous par-5 hole seven as the Cambodians and Americans found the basket in four.

We were down to two countries and two holes. This was a time for Jared “I can only birdie hole 8” Cahners to finally contribute (positively). He planted his drive about six meters from the basket and sunk the putt for birdie. With the course getting darker, the other two teams were not even able to find par, and it seemed to be the Americans’ competition to lose on hole 9. Although Jared tried to challenge John by putting him directly behind a massive tree, John found a way to park the disc anyway, and the Americans found par. The moon rose to see the Cambodians and the Brits bogie and the Americans hoist the crown as Tri-Nations disc golf champions.

(Really though, Cambodian Panha, playing for his second time ever, and English Dean, playing for his second time ever as well, played superb, as did their partners Pich and Sam. It was a super fun impromptu event.)