Golfer Ashley Lau turned what has already been a good year into an even better one after helping Team International to win the Arnold Palmer Cup in Switzerland.
The Arnold Palmer Cup is a Ryder Cup-style team competition featuring 24 top American men and women's collegiate golfers against 24 from the rest of the world.
The 22-year-old Sarawakian came good on the final day by contributing half a point for Team International's 33-27 victory over Team USA in the three-day event, which ended yesterday at Golf Club de Geneve.
Locked at 18-18 heading into Sunday, Ashley knew she had to deliver after losing narrowly in her previous three matches.
Ashley, however, was denied a point by Carlynne Rosholt, who staged a late comeback to overturn the Malaysian's 3-up advantage with five holes remaining.
Ashley had to play catch up at the start of the day after finding herself 2-down through the opening three holes.
"Heading into the round, I had lost all three of my matches, so I knew I had to step my game up," said Ashley.
"After being 2-down through three, I thought I just needed to play my game and take one shot at a time. I am very honoured to be here and looking forward to the Swiss chocolates."
In the opening Mixed Fourball on Friday, Ashley and Belgian Adrien Dumont de Chassart were beaten 2&1 (2-up and one hole remaining) by Dylan Menante-Antonia Malate.
Ashley-Dumont then suffered another narrow defeat in Saturday's Mixed Foursomes — 1-up to Michael Tjorbjornsen-Angela Zhang.
Ashley also played alongside Kajsa Arwefjall of Sweden in the Women's Foursomes, where they lost 2&1 to Ameri Avery-Rachel Kuehn.
With her Arnold Palmer Cup debut, Ashley is the only second Malaysian to play in the tournament after Alyaa Abdulghany, who was part of the victorious International side in 2020.
Natasha Andrea Oon could have made it two Malaysians in the Team International, but she was no longer eligible after turning professional recently.
Ashley, the world No 27 in the amateur rankings, completed a superb 2021-22 season with the University of Michigan.
She enjoyed several accomplishments and finished a career-best tied-13th individually in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division 1 Championships.
Thanks to her two victories and four top-five finishes in the regular season, she was named the Big Ten Conference Golfer of the Year and honoured in the All-America First Team by Women's Golf Coaches Association (WCGA) together with Natasha.
Ashley has opted to continue pursuing Masters in management at the same university and will not turn professional for now.