Golf: Europe seals comfortable fifth win

Europe has won the Sir Michael Bonallack Trophy after beating their Asian-Pacific rivals by a margin of 21.5 to 10.5 at the Monte Rei Golf Country Club in Portugal.

The Asia-Pacific team needed to win 10 of the 12 singles matches on the final day to claim the biennial trophy.

Their faint hopes were kept alive early on when they lead in nine of the 12 matches after 14 holes through the final. But the Europeans always held the advantage and fought back well, winning the singles by a margin of 8-4 margin to secure a victory by 11 points.

New Zealand's Mathew Perry, who had been a standout all week for the Asia-Pacific team, had a half which could have been a win as he lipped out for eagle on the last for the point.

He shared the honours against Germany's Maritz Lampart as the pair was six under for the round.

"I ended up with the best record for the Asia-Pacific team along with Hideki Matsuyama of Japan and that is an effort I'm pretty proud of," Perry said.

"After the early fight we put up this morning, we faltered, falling well short in the singles. But this has been a good experience for all of us and one I hope to build on."

Ben Campbell, the other Kiwi golfer in the Asia-Pacific team, had another disappointing day as he was well beaten by European No 1 Manual Trappel by 7 and 6.

The Asian-Pacific team struggled all week in the wet and windy conditions at the Jack Nicklaus-designed layout, to which the Europeans were much more accustomed.

Europe has now won the Bonallack Trophy five out of the seven events that have been staged since it began in 1998 at Lake Karrinyup in Perth. The 2010 event was cancelled due to the volcanic eruption Iceland which shut down European air space.