13th July 2019
Here is my assessment of the Individual GB&I performances at the European Men’s Amateur Team Championship.
Euan WALKER (SCO) was my star man at this week’s Championship after another superb overall performance.
Harry HALL (ENG), Ryan LUMSDEN (SCO), Mark POWER (IRE) and Gaelan TREW (WAL) impressively won all three of their Singles games in the Match Play stage.
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13th July 2019
Sweden beat ENGLAND 4.5-2.5 in the Final of the European Men’s Amateur Team Championship.
Sweden’s Men’s Team (Photo: European Golf Association)
It was Sweden’s third win and first since 1961 – they won the first two Championships that were played. Meanwhile England collected the silver medal for the third year running after losing to Spain and Finland in the two previous Finals.
Tom SLOMAN and Tom PLUMB completed a hat trick of Foursomes wins in the opening match but Alex FITZPATRICK and Matty LAMB couldn’t match them on this occasion.
As England had lost both Singles series’ in the previous two rounds the writing was perhaps on the wall entering the afternoon games. Obviously this time their opponents also had home advantage on their side too.
Sweden ended up winning the second half of the match 3.5-1.5 with only Harry HALL able to secure a full point – his third Singles win of the competition.
Sweden v. England Final Match Results (Photo: EGA / Golfbox)
SCOTLAND secured the Bronze Medal beating Denmark 4-3 on the final day.
The Scots got off to a great start winning both of the morning foursomes with some ease.
Narrow 1 hole wins for Euan WALKER and Ryan LUMSDEN ultimately saw them home.
Denmark v. Scotland 3rd Place Match Results (Photo: EGA / Golfbox)
IRELAND pipped WALES to 5th place winning their final day match 3-2.
Two matches went to extra holes and with Ireland winning both they swung the result to the green side. In the Foursomes Caolan RAFFERTY & James SUGRUE got the win on the 22nd hole and like yesterday Mark POWER came out on top in extra time in his Singles.
Ireland v. Wales 5th Place Match Results (Photo: EGA / Golfbox)
Click here to view all of the Match Play Results – Flight A
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12th July 2019
ENGLAND beat SCOTLAND 4-3 in their semi-final at the European Men’s Amateur Team Championship. They will play Sweden tomorrow in the final after the home nation overcame Denmark 6-1.
The two English foursomes pairings maintained their 100% win records with Tom SLOMAN & Tom PLUMB beating Sandy SCOTT & James WILSON 3&2 and Alex FITZPATRICK & Matty LAMB overcoming Euan MCINTOSH & Euan WALKER by 2 Holes.
The Scots fought back well in the afternoon with Sandy SCOTT, Euan WALKER and Ryan LUMSDEN all winning their Singles. However, it proved to be in vein as Tom PLUMB and Harry HALL saw England home with 3&2 and 3&1 wins respectively in the other two games.
Scotland v. England Semi-Final Results (Photo: EGA / Golfbox)
Despite being out of the medals IRELAND and WALES carry on playing – albeit in an abridged match format – to see who finishes in 5th to 8th places in the Championship.
IRELAND beat Germany 3-2, the highlights being Singles wins for Conor PURCELL and Mark POWER.
Ireland v. Germany Results (Photo: EGA / Golfbox)
WALES enjoyed the scalp of Spain on Day 4 of the Championship. Their 3.5-1.5 victory came on the back of an unbeaten Singles performance with three wins coming from Gaelen TREW, Jacob DAVIES and Jake HAPGOOD.
Spain v. Wales Results (Photo: EGA / Golfbox)
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11th July 2019
No. 1 seed’s IRELAND lost 4-3 to Denmark who had finished 34 shots behind them in the Stroke Play Qualifying.
IRELAND got off to a bad start losing both morning foursome games heavily by 5&4.
Whilst Conor PURCELL (5&3), Mark POWER (4&3) and James SUGRUE (3&2) all won their Singles narrow 1 hole losses for Caolan RAFFERTY and Tiarnan MCLARNON ultimately did for the Irish.
Ireland v. Denmark Quarter Final Results (Photo: EGA / Golfbox)
SCOTLAND beat Spain 4.5 – 2.5.
Having built a strong foundation with two foursomes wins in the morning, Singles wins for Sandy SCOTT and Ryan LUMSDEN and a half for James WILSON easily saw the Scots home.
Scotland v. Spain Quarter Final Results (Photo: EGA / Golfbox)
England narrowly beat Wales 4-3 to set up a semi-final with Scotland.
Wales can take some consolation from wining the afternoon Singles series 3-2 with their wins coming from Gaelan TREW, Archie DAVIES and Jake HAPGOOD.
England v. Wales Quarter Final Results (Photo: EGA / Golfbox)
Click here to view the Match Play Draw / Scores – Flight A
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10th July 2019
IRELAND (-19), ENGLAND (-16) and SCOTLAND (-10) finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively in the Stroke Play Qualifying competition, where five of the six individual scores count towards the team total.
WALES (+12) battled well on Day 2 with a +2 total helping them to an encouraging 7th place finish.
As a result all four home nations qualified for the top 8 Flight A match play stage and as such are now competing for a Championship medal.
Stroke Play Qualifying Results (Photo: EGA / Golfbox)
Euan WALKER (SCO) earned individual medalist honours. His rounds of 67 and 65 gave him a 132 (-12) total and saw him finish 3-shots ahead of his nearest challengers.
Making a welcome return to form Conor PURCELL (IRE) -9 was 2nd and Tom SLOMAN (ENG) -8 3rd.
Caolan RAFFERTY (IRE) and Alex FITZPATRICK (ENG) were the next best in tied 4th on -5.
Sandy SCOTT (SCO), Ben JONES (ENG) and Ben CHAMBERLAIN (WAL) finished in a six man group in tied 7th on -3 in a leaderboard that was dominated by GB&I players.
Leading Stroke Play Qualifying Individual Results (Photo: EGA / Golfbox)
Click here to view the Stroke Play Qualifying Results – Individual and Team
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7th July 2019
The 36th European Men’s Amateur Team Championship will be played between Tuesday 9th and Saturday 13th July 2019 at Ljunghusen G.C. in Sweden.
Teams from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales will be competing this week.
Finland are the defending champions having won at Golf Club Bad Saarow in Germany.
Team Finland (Photo: Suomen Golfliitto / @golfliitto)
The European Ladies’, Boys’ and Girls’ Team Championships are also being played elsewhere in Europe this week.
I will provide daily updates on play in the Men’s event on this website during the week and score links to all of the Championships on Twitter.
2019 Teams
16 national teams of 6 players contest the European Men’s Amateur Team Championship.
The teams competing in the 2019 Championship are Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Scotland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Wales.
Portugal, Czech Republic and Serbia were relegated from Division 1 in 2018 whilst Switzerland, Slovenia and Wales were promoted from Division 2.
The Czech Republic have been given a reprieve whilst Belgium, who finished 4th in Division 2 last year, have also been invited to play in Sweden. This is because both Italy, who finished 12th in Division 1, and Division 2 champions Switzerland have chosen to participate in the Division 2 competition in Poland this year. I have no idea why they would want to do this.
The 2019 home nation teams are made up of the following players: –
ENGLAND – Alex FITZPATRICK, Harry HALL, Ben JONES, Matty LAMB, Tom PLUMB and Tom SLOMAN.
IRELAND – Tiarnan MCLARNAN, Ronan MULLARNEY, Mark POWER, Conor PURCELL, Caolan RAFFERTY and James SUGRUE.
SCOTLAND – Ryan LUMSDEN, Euan MCINTOSH, Sandy SCOTT, Jamie STEWART, Euan WALKER and James WILSON.
WALES – Ben CHAMBERLAIN, Archie DAVIES, Jacob DAVIES, Jake HAPGOOD, Matt ROBERTS and Gaelan TREW.
Unusually quite a few players, primarily from Scotland and Wales, played in the Men’s Team events last year. These were Caolan Rafferty, Ryan Lumsden, Euan McIntosh, Sandy Scott, Jamie Stewart, Euan Walker, Ben Chamberlain, Jake Hapgood, Matt Roberts and Gaelan Trew.
Format / Schedule
The Championship is run by the European Golf Association, this year in partnership with the Swedish Golf Federation.
Two rounds of stroke play qualifying are completed on the first two days, with the lowest five scores from each team counting.
These results determine a seeded match play draw. The top 8 qualifying teams will play in a first flight, which will determine the medalists, with the others competing in a second flight. In Fight A it is therefore 1st v. 8th, 2nd v. 7th, 3rd v. 6th and 4th v. 5th.
The teams finishing 14th to 16th in the match play stage will theoretically be relegated to the Division 2 Championship for 2020.
The teams in Flight A play 2 foursomes and 5 singles whilst those in Flight B play 1 foursome and 4 singles.
A win earns 1 point, a draw half a point and a loss no points in all of the matches.
Website Links – Draw / Scores / Information
Stroke Play Qualifying Leaderboard – Individual and Team
Match Play Draw / Results – Flight A and Flight B
For more event information – European Golf Association Website
Ljunghusen Golf Club, Sweden
Ljunghusen is a flat heathland links course located on the Falsterbo Peninsula, about 20 miles south of Malmö.
The Championship, which was also staged here in 2001, will be played on holes 1-18 of this 27 hole facility.
The main course plays to 6,352 metres and a par of 72. As can be seen from the aerial photo below the course is relatively tight with fairways edged with heather and some greens protected by water hazards. Ljunghusen translates as ‘house of heather’ and if the wind blows it can be penal.
Ljunghusen G.C. (Photo: GEO Foundation / sustainable.golf)
Weather Forecast
This week’s weather forecast for south west Sweden looks very good. The winds off the Baltic determine the difficulty of the course and with relatively low values expected I anticipate a low scoring competition.
Tue 9th July – Sunny Intervals. Wind 15 mph NW. Temp. Min. 12°C / Max. 19°C.
Wed 10th July – Sunny. Wind 14 mph NW. Temp. Min. 13°C / Max. 20°C.
Thur 11th July – Sunny. Wind 10 mph NW. Temp. Min. 13°C / Max. 21°C.
Fri 12th July – Sunny. Wind 8 mph NW. Temp. Min. 13°C / Max. 21°C.
Sat 13th July – Sunny. Wind 10 mph SW. Temp. Min. 12°C / Max. 20°C.
2018 European Men’s Amateur Team Championship
In something of a surprise Finland beat England 5-2 at Golf Club Bad Saarow, Brandenburg in Germany in the 2018 Final.
England, the 11-time champions, beat France (6-1) and Denmark (4-3) on their way to the Final.
Scotland, who had qualified for Flight A, lost to Denmark (4.5-2.5), France (1.5-3.5) and finally Sweden (3-2) to finish 8th.
In Flight B Ireland beat Serbia (5-0) and Iceland (3.5-1.5) but lost 2-3 to Netherlands on the final day to finish 10th.
Match Play Draw / Scores – Flight A
Match Play Draw / Scores – Flight B
In the preceding Stroke Play Qualifying competition England (-27) finished 2nd (after count back from winners Sweden), Scotland (-11) 6th and Ireland (-1) 9th. England and Scotland therefore qualified for the Flight A Match Play whilst Ireland had to settle for Flight B.
England’s Gian-Marco PETROZZI secured individual medalist honours with a -12 total. John MURPHY (-9) was Ireland’s leading player finishing 6th whilst Euan MCINTOSH (-4) was the best placed Scot in 14th place.
Stroke Play Qualifying Results – Individual and Team
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 8, Ireland 6, Spain 4, Sweden 2 and Finland, France, Italy and Wales once each.
Click here to view the full list of – European Men’s Amateur Team Championship Past Winners
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