9th July 2016

Scotland retained their European Men’s Amateur Team Championship with an impressive 5-2 victory over Sweden in today’s final at Golf de Chantilly in France.

A foursomes win by Connor SYME and Craig HOWIE on the 21st hole gave the Scot’s momentum going into the singles. Scotland lost the other foursomes 3&2 to be 1-1 at lunch. Syme (4&3), Robert MACINTYRE (1 hole) and Grant FORREST (5&4) all won their singles and with Craig HOWIE and Sandy SCOTT halving their games the title was ultimately comfortably secured.

Ireland lost to France 4-1 in Flight A to end up finishing 6th. England beat Netherlands 3.5-1.5 in Flight B to secure their Division 1 status but nevertheless a 13th place finish was disappointing for them.

In the Divison 2 Championship final Wales lost to Iceland 4-3. Unfortunately Joshua DAVIES, who had qualified well, was bitten while caddying yesterday and was unable to compete today. Nevertheless promotion had already been secured and the Welsh team can leave Luxembourg with their heads held high. David BOOTE starred for Wales – he was medalist in the stroke play qualifier and won all four of his foursomes and singles match play games – a rare achievement.

Here are the match play results for all of the European Amateur Team Championship events as well as my Men’s GB&I Player Performance Analysis: –

Click the ‘Score’ box in the centre of each match to see the draw and live scores.

Men’s Division 1
– Flight A Match Play Results     IRE, SCO
– Flight B Match Play Results     ENG

Men’s Division 2
– Flight A Match Play Results     WAL

Golf Bible’s GB&I Player Performance Analysis 

Ladies’
– Flight A Match Play Results     ENG
– Flight B Match Play Results     IRE, SCO
– Flight C Match Play Results     WAL

England – 2016 European Ladies’ Team Champions (Photo: Zoe Allen)

Boys’
– Flight A Match Play Results    SCO
– Flight B Match Play Results    ENG, WAL

Girls’
– Flight A Match Play Results    ENG
– Flight B Match Play Results    IRE, SCO

Finally, here’s a table that summarises the team results of each country: –

ME.

8th July 2016

Scotland will play Sweden in the final of the European Men’s Amateur Team Championship tomorrow. Scotland beat Denmark 5-2 in today’s Flight A semi-final.

Ireland beat Spain 3.5-1.5 in their Flight A match.

England beat Portugal 4.5-0.5 in their consolation match in Flight B. Another win will be required tomorrow to confirm their Division 1 status for 2017.

Wales won their first Division 2 Flight A match play game against Czech Republic thus securing promotion back to Division 1 in 2017. They will play Iceland in tomorrow’s Division 2 final.

Here is my updated GB&I Player Analysis / Ranking: –

ME.

7th July 2016

Scotland continue to make a spirited defence of their European Men’s Amateur team title.

Today they beat Spain 5.5-1.5 in their match play quarter final. Grant FORREST and Robert MACINTYRE won their morning foursomes before going on to both win singles later in the day. Scotland were unbeaten in the match, winning the other foursomes and halving the three other singles games.

Ireland lost their quarter final 4.5-2.5 to Italy. With two tight foursomes games shared 1-1 the Irish came unstuck in the singles where only Jack HUME could secure a win.

England‘s disappointing tournament continued with a surprise 3-2 defeat to Switzerland in Flight B. Alfie PLANT and Adam CHAPMAN salvaged some pride by winning the last two singles games. England now have to beat either Portugal tomorrow, and if they don’t the Netherlands or Finland on Saturday to avoid relegation to Division 2.

Here’s a summary of the GB&I Division 1 Men’s Euro performances to date: –

In Division 2 Wales qualified second behind Iceland and will go into the match play stage confident of promotion. David BOOTE (-9) was the individual medalist in the stroke play qualifying.

ME.

6th July 2016

At the completion of the Men’s Stroke Play Qualifier Scotland (+3) finished 2nd, Ireland (+10) 6th and England (+18) 10th.

Scotland and Ireland are therefore still in the medal shake up, playing in the First Flight Match Play event. England will have to make do with the Second Flight having failed to finish in the top 8.

ME.

5th July 2016

Here are the live stroke play scoring links for all of this week’s European Team Championships: –

Men’s Division 1 – Stroke Play Qualifier Scores

Men’s Division 2 – Stroke Play Qualifier Scores

Ladies’ – Stroke Play Qualifier Scores

Boys’ – Stroke Play Qualifier Scores

Girls’ – Stroke Play Qualifier Scores

ME.

3rd July 2016

The 33rd European Men’s Amateur Team Championship will be played between Tuesday 5th and Saturday 9th July 2016 at Golf de Chantilly in Northern France.

Amateur teams from England, Ireland and Scotland will be competing this week.

Scotland are the defending champions having won the 2015 event at Halmstad Golf Club in Sweden. England finished 4th and Ireland 5th last year. Wales were 14th and relegated to Division 2 and therefore will be playing in a different event this week.

Format / Schedule

16 National teams of 6 players contest the Men’s Championship.

The Championship is run by the European Golf Association who charge an entrance fee of €1,500 per team.

The top 13 teams from last year’s Division 1 Championship are joined by 3 promoted teams from the 2015 Division 2 Championship.

Two rounds of stroke play qualifying are completed on the first two days, with the best five scores from each team counting.

These results determine a seeded match play draw. Additionally the teams finishing 14th to 16th in the stroke play stage will be relegated to the Division 2 Championship for 2017.

The top 8 qualifying teams will play in a first flight with the others competing in a second flight. The leading teams play 2 foursomes and 5 singles whilst those in the lower draw play 1 foursome and 4 singles. A win earns 1 point and a draw half a point in all of the matches.

2016 Teams

The teams competing in the 2016 Championship are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

Austria, Norway and Portugal were all promoted to Division 1 last year.

The 2016 home nation teams are made up of the following players: –

ENGLAND – Jamie BOWER, Adam CHAPMAN, Scott GREGORY, Bradley MOORE, Marco PENGE and Alfie PLANT.

IRELAND – Colm CAMPBELL, Alex GLEESON, Stuart GREHAN, Jack HUME, Paul MCBRIDE and Conor O’ROURKE.

SCOTLAND – Grant FORREST, Craig HOWIE, Robert MACINTYRE*, Jamie SAVAGE, Sandy SCOTT and Connor SYME (*replaced Ewen FERGUSON who withdrew with a hand injury last week).

This will be the final event before The R&A and Captain Craig Watson select the Great Britain & Ireland team for this month’s St. Andrews Trophy match against Europe. It is therefore the perfect time for individuals to confirm their place and for national pairings to come to the fore.

Golf de Chantilly

Established in 1908 and designed by Tom Simpson Chantilly is one of the most famous and best golf courses in Europe.

Golf de Chantilly

Chantilly has staged many Championships in it’s time, including the French Open 10 times. Most recently it staged the French Men’s Amateur Stroke Play Championship in May. This was won by Spain’s Ivan CANTERO, who beat England’s Marco PENGE in a play-off.

Chantilly has 2 courses the Vineuil and the Longères. This Championship is being played on the Vineuil, a par 71 which plays over 6,444 metres.

The Vineuil course record is held by Peter MCEVOY. He shot 63 in the second round of the 1983 European Men’s Amateur Championship, 5-shots better than anyone else that day, on his way to achieving individual medalist honours in the stroke play stage.

Weather Forecast

As at Sunday 3rd July, 10.00am the weather forecast for Chantilly looks very good: –

Tue 5th July – Cloudy. Wind 12 mph W. Temp. Max. 21°C / Min 11°C.

Wed 6th July – Sunny. Wind 4 mph NW. Temp. Max. 22°C / Min 12°C.

Thur 7th July – Sunny. Wind 5 mph E. Temp. Max. 25°C / Min 14°C.

Fri 8th July – Sunny. Wind 8 mph SW. Temp. Max. 24°C / Min 16°C.

Sat 9th July – Sunny. Wind 12 mph W. Temp. Max. 26°C / Min 16°C.

History / Previous Results

The European Men’s Amateur Team Championship was first played in 1959.

It was played every second year until 2007. Since then it has been played annually save for 2012 when no Championship was held.

To date England have won 11 times, Scotland 7, Ireland 6, Spain 3, Sweden 2, Wales 1, Italy 1 and France 1.

Other 2016 European Championship Links

A number of other European team championships are being played this week. Click on the following links to learn more about them: –

Men’s Div 2 – 6-9 July 2016 at Kikuoka CC, Luxembourg

Ladies’ –  5-9 July 2016 at Oddur GC, Iceland

Boys’ – 5-9 July 2016 at Diamond CC, Austria

Girls’ – 5-9 July 2016 at Oslo GC, Norway

ME.

Copyright © 2016, Mark Eley. All rights reserved.