England v. France Men’s International Match – 2024 Preview & Results

Posted on 10/05/2024 by Golf Bible

12th May 2024

France beat England 13.5.-10.5 in the 37th Men’s International Match played this year at Moortown G.C.

This was France’s sixth win in the biennial series and their first since 2010 at Chantilly.

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France Team (Photo: Federation of French Golf

Four French and two English players won three of the four matches they played.

Screenshot 2024-05-13 at 10.07.07

Click here to view the – England v. France Match Results

Day 2

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Morning Foursomes

England and France again halved the Foursomes series 2.0-2.0.

Hugo LE GOFF & Noa AUCH-ROY were again in superb form as they blew away England’s star pairing of Dylan SHAW-RADFORD & Harley SMITH with a 3&2 win in the opening game.

Will HOPKINS & Zach CHEGWIDDEN secured England’s first point of Day 2 with a strong foursomes performance against Darren STRACHAN & Rafael BOBO-LLORET; hole wins on the 14th and 15th pushed the English pairing on to a 3&1 win.

Ben BOLTON & Ben BROWN came out on the wrong side of an exciting match against Oscar COUILLEAU & LOUKA MORIN, with plenty of birdies from both sides, by 1 Hole.

Eliot BAKER & James CLARIDGE beat Callixte ALZAS & Aaron VAN HAUWE by 2&1 to earn their first wins of the match.

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Day 2 Foursomes Results (Graphic: England Golf / Golf Genius)

Afternoon Singles

France won the Day 2 Singles series 4.5-3.5 to complete a thoroughly deserved match win.

Hugo LE GOFF and Will HOPKINS again played each other in the top match. This time it was the turn of the Frenchman to earn the 1 Hole victory in another high class encounter.

Harley SMITH continued his good form with a comfortable 4&3 victory over Noa AUCH-ROY helped by a match play eagle and five birdies in the 15 holes they played.

Yorkshire’s Dylan SHAW-RADFORD wasn’t to be out done by his foursomes partner. Five birdies in his 14 holes enabled him to runaway from Louka MORIN by 5&4 in Game 3.

Rafael BOBO-LLORET easily saw off Ben BOLTON 6&5 after the Englishman got on the bogey train on the 6th hole and was unable to get off it.

Zach CHEGWIDDEN, who was 4Down after 11 holes after a sloppy front nine to Darren STRACHAN, fought back to 1Down by the 15th but a three putt bogey on 16 gave the Frenchman the breathing space he needed to secure a 2&1 win.

Ben BROWN got the better of Callixte ALZAS in a rollercoaster match where the home player took an early lead, let it slip around the turn, before finishing strongly, a long putt from off the green for birdie on the 18th being key, for a 1Hole win.

Aaron VAN HAUWE beat Devon’s Eliot BAKER by 2&1 in the penultimate Singles, the highlight being his eagle on the 519 yard 7th.

James CLARIDGE, who was behind for most of his match against Oscar COUILLEAU, showed good heart in winning the closing two holes to tie his game, albeit the Frenchman bogeyed both of them.

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ME.

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11th May 2024

Day 1

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Morning Foursomes

England and France halved the Day 1 Foursomes series 2.0-2.0.

In Game 1 Hugo LE GOFF & Noa AUCH-ROY were a match play 6-under par for the 15 holes they required to beat Will HOPKINS & Zach CHEGWIDDEN by 5&3.

Game 2 saw the victorious 2024 Sunningdale Foursomes pairing of Dylan SHAW-RADFORD & Harley SMITH overcome Oscar COUILLEAU & Darren STRACHAN, who had 5 bogeys in the 14 holes they played, by 5&4.

Ben BROWN & Ben BOLTON beat Rafael BOBO-LLORET & LOUKA MORIN by 2&1, the French pair unable to recover from losing the 5th, 6th, 8th and 9th holes, three of them to bogeys.

In the final game Callixte ALZAS & Aaron VAN HAUWE beat Eliot BAKER & James CLARIDGE by 3&1. The French pair were 3Up at the turn and saw out the match relatively comfortably thereafter.

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Day 1 Foursomes Results (Graphic: England Golf / Golf Genius)

Afternoon Singles

France won the Day 1 Singles series 5.0-3.0.

Will HOPKINS, who won the Lytham Trophy last weekend, got the better of Hugo LE GOFF in the opening Singles. 2Down with four holes to plan Hopkins delivered two birdies, including one on the home hole with a 25 foot putt, to secure a memorable 1 Hole victory.

The second game was equally tight with Noa AUCH-ROY getting the better of Zach CHEGWIDDEN by 1 Hole.

Harley SMITH and Dylan SHAW-RADFORD both maintained their unbeaten match records with 5&4 and 2&1 wins against Darren STRACHAN and Rafael BOBO-LLORET respectively.

Ben BROWN and James CLARIDGE both got off to good starts in their games, Brown leading 2Up after 4 holes and Claridge 3Up after 5, but both were reeled in by Louka MORIN and Callixte ALZAS as they leaked bogeys as their rounds progressed.

Aaron VAN HAUWE outlasted Ben BOLTON in a competitive match which was All Square after 16 holes before the Enville player handed the initiative to the Frenchman with two badly timed bogeys on the 17th and 18th holes.

The biggest Singles win of Day 1 went to Oscar COUILLEAU who beat Eliot BAKER by 6&5. Couilleau was a match play 5-under par for the 13 holes he required to reach the winning line.

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Day 1 Singles Results (Graphic: England Golf / Golf Genius)

ME.

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10th May 2024

England will play France this coming weekend in the 37th Men’s International Match between the two countries.

The last match, played at Golf de Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche near Paris in May 2022, was won by England.

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Moortown Golf Club

Format

8 man teams from each country will play 4 foursomes and 8 single matches on both Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th May.

With a total of 24 points to play for the winning team needs to secure 12.5 points to win the match outright. As England won the 2022 match they will also retain the trophy in the event of a 12-12 tie. Having said that there has never previously been a tie in the history of the contest.

The biennial match is normally played on an alternate home and away basis.

Teams

The biennial playing of this fixture in mid-May hampers selection nowadays as both teams have an increasing number of potential players competing on the U.S. college circuit.

Here are the two eight man teams with each player’s current World Amateur Golf Ranking (as at 8th May) in brackets after their name: –

England
Eliot Baker (842)
Ben Bolton (708)
Ben Brown (1,089)
Zach Chegwidden (828)
James Claridge (202)
Will Hopkins (102)
Dylan Shaw-Radford (514)
Harley Smith (928)

Total WAGR = 5,213

Zach Chegwidden is the only returning England player from two years ago.

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England Team (Photo: Golf England)

France
Noa Auch-Roy (1,067)
Callixte Alzas (977)
Rafeal Bobo-Lloret (1,993)
Oscar Couilleau (599)
Hugo Le Goff (323)
Louka Morin (2,791)
Darren Strachan (399)
Aaron Van Hauwe (2,337)

Total WAGR = 10,486

France have no returning players from the 2022 match.

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France Team (Photo: Golf England)

England will start the match as favourites as is normally the case given past results and their greater strength in depth as a golf nation.

Tee Times

Click here to view the – England v. France Tee Times

Venue

Moortown Golf Club was designed by Dr Alister MacKenzie in 1909 across woodland and moorland on the northern outskirts of Leeds.

The club has long held a reputation as a venue for prestigious international championships and was the host of the first Ryder Cup match on British soil in 1929.

Off the Blue Championship Tees the courses measures 7,001 yards and plays to a par of 71.

The Gibraltar par 3 10th, shown below, is the Club’s signature hole.

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The 9th and 10th Holes at Moortown G.C.

Weather Forecast

Near perfect golfing weather is expected in Northern England over the coming days; warm sunshine with light breezes.

Sat 11th May – Sunny / Wind 11 mph SE / Temp. Min. 11°C / Max. 23°C.
Sun 12th May – Sunny / Wind 12 mph SE / Temp. Min. 13°C / Max. 22°C.

Match History

This International Match was first played in 1934, originally starting with 6 players per side before moving to 8 in 1949.

It lapsed after the 1962 match at Ganton Golf Club but was resurrected in 1982 at Chantilly with a new format which has been retained to this day.

Frilford Heath Golf Club, hosts of the 1984 match, donated a silver salver which the winning team retains.

England v. France Match Salver (Photo: Alexis Orloff / FFGolf)

To date England have won 31 of the matches with France winning just 5, the last one being in 2010 at Chantilly.

2022 International Match

England beat France 13.5-10.5 in the 2022 Men’s International Match at Golf de Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche, finally overcoming their stubborn opponents in the final Singles session.

The Winning England Team (Photo: England Golf)

French pair Julien Sale and Oihan Guillamoundeguy were the star performers in the match delivering the two only unbeaten records.

John Gough, Arron Edwards-Hill, Jack Bigham and Sam Bairstow crucially won both of their Singles for the English.

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Past Results

The overall match record is Played 36, England 31 Wins and France 5 Wins.

Match	Year	Venue	England	France	Winner
37	2024	Moortown	10.5	13.5	France
36	2022	St-Nom-la-Bretèche	13.5	10.5	England
	2020	Cancelled
35	2018	Vidauban	13	7	England
34	2016	Formby	14	10	England
33	2014	Fontainebleau	13	11	England
32	2012	Roch. & Cobham	15	9	England
31	2010	Chantilly	11	13	France
30	2008	Frilford Heath	14	10	England
29	2006	Golf du Medoc	16.5	7.5	England
28	2004	Royal St. George’s	11.5	12.5	France
27	2002	Chantilly	17.5	6.5	England
26	2000	Chart Hills	17.5	6.5	England
25	1998	Les Bordes	11.5	12.5	France
24	1996	Sunningdale	9	15	France
23	1994	Nimes	17	7	England
22	1992	Royal Lytham	18	6	England
21	1990	Morfontaine	16.5	7.5	England
20	1988	Berkshire	16	8	England
19	1986	Hossegor	14.5	9.5	England
18	1984	Frilford Heath	16	8	England
17	1982	Chantilly	13	11	England
1963-1981 No matches were played
16	1962	Ganton	7.5	4.5	England
15	1960	Chantilly	7.5	4.5	England
14	1959	West Hill	8.5	3.5	England
13	1956	Chantilly	10	2	England
12	1954	Berkshire	11	1	England
11	1952	Deal	8	4	England
10	1950	Morfontaine	8.5	3.5	England
9	1949	Deal	5	4	England
8	1948	St. Cloud	5.5	3.5	England
7	1947	Wentworth	8	1	England
1940-1946 No matches were played
6	1939	Morfontaine	5	4	France
5	1938	Sunningdale	8.5	0.5	England
4	1937	Chantilly	7	0	England
3	1936	Deal	5.5	3.5	England
2	1935	St. Germain-en-Laye	5.5	3.5	England
1	1934	Wentworth	5.5	3.5	England

N.B. Matches 1–8 had 6 players and matches 9-35 had 8 players

ME.

Men’s European Nations Championship – 2024 Preview & Results

Posted on 15/04/2024 by Golf Bible

20th April 2024

Round 4

IRELAND (+4) held off a fast finishing SWITZERLAND (+5) to win the 2024 Men’s European Nations Championship at R.C.G. Sotogrande.

It was Ireland’s second victory in the competition following with their previous win which came in 2016.

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Ireland Team (Photo: Golf Ireland)

WALES (+6) finished 3rd, SCOTLAND (+7) 4th and ENGLAND (+16) tied 7th.

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Round 4 Team Results (Graphic: RCG Sotogrande / Golfbox)

James ASHFIELD (WAL) -5 won the Individual title at the European Nations Championship helped by a classy 69 in the final round.

Gregor GRAHAM (SCO) -3 finished 2nd and Lars VAN DER VIGHT (NED), Will HOPKINS (ENG) and Jack HEARN (IRL) -2 tied 3rd.

Tomi BOWEN (WAL) +5 tied 13th, Seán KEELING (IRL) +6 tied 17th and Matt MCCLEAN (IRL) +7 tied 19th all finished in the top 20 from the GB&I contingent.

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James Ashfield (Photo: Golf Wales)

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Round 4 Individual Results (Graphic: RCG Sotogrande / Golfbox)

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19th April 2024

Round 3

IRELAND (+1) for the second day running delivered the best team score with a +3 total to move into the overall European Nations Championship lead.

WALES (+5) are four shots behind them in 2nd but SCOTLAND (+10), hampered by the withdrawal of Connor GRAHAM due to injury, tumbled down the rankings to 5th with a +17 score on Day 3. The defending champions ENGLAND (+16) continue to disappoint, remaining tied 9th.

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Round 3 Team Scores (Graphic: RCG Sotogrande / Golfbox)

Jack HEARN (IRL) -5 moved to the top of the Individual leaderboard as he added a 71 (-1) to his consistent body of work in Sotogrande. Will HOPKINS (ENG) -3 moved up to 3rd whilst Gregor GRAHAM (SCO) & James ASHFIELD (WAL) -2 fell to tied 4th.

Spanish U18 Boys’ champion, Sebastian DESOISA +1 tied 11th, who is from Gibraltar and therefore British qualified continued to move up the leaderboard. He is one of the players invited to compete by R.C.G. Sotogrande. Seán KEELING (IRL) sits alongside Desoisa.

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Round 3 Individual Scores (Graphic: RCG Sotogrande / Golfbox)

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18th April 2024

Round 2

SCOTLAND (-7) moved to the top of the leaderboard with a -2 team score. WALES (-6) are now tied 2nd, IRELAND (-2), who enjoyed a best of the day -7 team score, rose to 4th place whilst ENGLAND (+7) slipped to tied 9th.

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Round 2 Team Scores (Graphic: RCG Sotogrande / Golfbox)

Michele FERRERO (ITA) shot a 68 in Round 2 to move into 1st place in the Individual standings. James ASHFIELD (WAL) -6 2nd, Gregor GRAHAM (SCO) -5 3rd, Jack HEARN (IRL) -4 4th and Seán KEATING (IRL) & Will HOPKINS (ENG) -3 tied 5th are all within striking distance.

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Round 2 Individual Scores (Graphic: RCG Sotogrande / Golfbox)

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17th April 2024

Round 1

At the end of Day 1 WALES (-6) led SCOTLAND (-5) at the top of the 2024 Men’s European Nations Championship leaderboard. ENGLAND (+4) were 5th and IRELAND (+5) tied 6th.

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Round 1 Team Scores (Graphic: RCG Sotogrande / Golfbox)

James ASHFIELD (WAL) and Gregor TAIT (SCO) shared the Round 1 Individual lead after opening with 5-under 67’s.

Tomi BOWEN (WAL) & Gregor GRAHAM (SCO) -3 tied 3rd and Jack HEARN (IRL) -2 7th were also in the top 10.

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Round 1 Individual Scores (Graphic: RCG Sotogrande / Golfbox)

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15th April 2024

The Men’s European Nations Championship (ENC) starts on Wednesday 17th April at Real Club de Golf Sotogrande in Southern Spain.

R.C.G. Sotogrande is the permanent home of the ENC and this will be the 16th playing of the event.

It is a 72 hole stroke play Team and Individual competition.

I will be providing daily reports once the Championship commences.

Real Club de Golf Sotogrande

Field
21 four-man teams (84 players) will play for the Team prize.

An additional seven players invited by both RCG Sotogrande and the Spanish Golf Federation will contest the Individual competition, making a total field of 91 players.

The following players have been selected to represent the four competing home nations in 2024: –

England – Will HOPKINS, Kris KIM, Dylan SHAW-RADFORD, Harley SMITH

Ireland – Hugh FOLEY, Jack HEARN, Seán KEELING, Matt MCCLEAN

Scotland – Connor GRAHAM, Gregor GRAHAM, James MORGAN, Gregor TAIT

Wales – James ASHFIELD, Tom BASTOW, Tomi BOWEN, Matt ROBERTS

A Women’s ENC, made up of three player teams, also takes place alongside the Men’s competition. Only England from the four home nations is among the ten team field this year.

Tee Times / Scores
Click here to view the – 2024 ENC Men’s Tee Times

Click here to view the – 2024 ENC Men’s Team Scores

Click here to view the – 2024 ENC Men’s Individual Scores

Format and Prizes
72 holes of stroke play, with 18 holes played daily, will be contested by all of the players. There is no cut.

In the Team event the best three 18-hole scores from the four players count towards the overall total.

In the case of a tie for 1st place a team member will be nominated and a sudden death play-off will be contested on the 9th hole. Other ties will be determined by a count back of the team score for the last 18, 27, 36, etc. holes.

The Individual prize is awarded to the lowest scoring player. Ties will be broken in line with the Team approach outlined above.

Winning Team members each receive a replica of the Nations Trophy. The Individual champion receives a trophy and a bright yellow jacket.

Venue and Course
Real Club de Golf Sotogrande was opened in 1964 and was originally designed by Robert Trent Jones. One of the best courses in Continental Europe it first held the Spanish Open in 1966, won that year by Roberto de Vicenzo.

In 1970 The Sherry Cup, the precursor of the European Nations Cup / Championship, was established. Former Individual winners of this include Padraig Harrington and Sergio Garcia. (see below for the full list of past Individual winners).

In 1973 a Women’s event started to be played alongside the Men’s.

In 1983 Sotogrande hosted the Spanish Amateur Championship with Jose Maria Olazabel victorious.

Sotogrande was awarded royal patronage by HM King Juan Carlos I in 1994.

Between 1996 and 2001, in tandem with nearby San Roque GC, the course hosted the European Tour’s Qualifying School.

In 2006 The Sherry Cup was rebranded as the European Nations Cup and in 2017 become known as the European Nations Championship played for the Sotogrande Cup.

In 2011, ahead of it’s 50th anniversary, the Club decided to embark upon a major course renovation appointing Roger Rulewich and David Fleury. With the work on greens, bunkering and drainage taking place in 2015 and early 2016 the ENC moved temporarily to the nearby La Reserva Club de Golf for two years. Since 2017 the competition has been played on the renovated course.

The Black Tee Championship Course at Sotogrande plays 6,492m with a par of 72. The front nine measures 3,163m and the back 3,329m.

Weather Forecast
The forecast looks good albeit as always the winds will be a factor, particularly during the afternoons. This can cause problems given the numerous water hazards on the course.

Wednesday 17th – Sunny Intervals Temp. Min. 15°C / Max. 23°C; Wind E 15mph
Thursday 18th – Sunny Intervals Temp. Min. 15°C / Max. 21°C; Wind E 15mph
Friday 19th – Sunny Intervals Temp. Min. 15°C / Max. 20°C; Wind E 30mph
Saturday 20th – Sunny Intervals Temp. Min. 15°C / Max. 19°C; Wind SE 40mph

Past ENC Winners

The home nations have an excellent record, particularly in recent years, in this event.

Team Competition

2023 England 2023 ENC Team Results

Dylan Shaw-Radford, Josh Berry, John Gough & Arron Hill-Edwards (Photo: Josh Berry)

2022 Spain 2022 ENC Team Results
2021 Cancelled
2020 Cancelled
2019 England 2019 ENC Team Results
2018 England 2018 ENC Team Results
2017 Wales 2017 ENC Team Results
2016 Ireland 2016 ENC Team Results
2015 England
2014 Scotland
2013 England
2012 France
2011 England
2010 England
2009 England
2008 Scotland
2007 Denmark

Past Sherry Cup Team Winners (started 1998)

2006 Spain
2005 Spain
2004 England
2003 England
2002 Wales
2001 England
2000 England
1999 Germany
1998 Spain

Individual Competition

2023 Albert Hansson (SWE) 2023 ENC Men’s Individual Results

Hansson beat England’s John Gough in a sudden death play-off-to win the Individual title after both players finished on 286 (-2).

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Albert Hansson (Photo: Swedish Golf Federation)

2022 Jaime Montojo (ESP) 2022 ENC Men’s Individual Result

Montojo won the Individual competition beating teammate Luis Masaveu in a play-off after both finished on 288 (Ev).

2021 Cancelled
2020 Cancelled
2019 Tom Sloman (England) 2019 ENC Individual Results

Tom won the Individual competition with a 294 (+6) total. His final round 77 looked like it would cost him the title but an eagle on 14 and three closing pars ended up being sufficient as is nearest challengers faltered on the demanding Sotogrande course.

2018 Todd Clements (England) 2018 ENC Individual Results

Todd secured the Individual title with rounds of 69 73 71 and 70 for a 283 total (-5).

2017 Jack Davidson (Wales) 2017 ENC Individual Results

Jack won the Individual European Nations Cup title by 4-shots last year. Rounds of 70, 70, 70 and 73 (-5), which included 20 birdies and 2 eagles, gave him his second major title in less than a month. He had won the Spanish International Amateur a few weeks before.

2016 Jack Hume (Ireland) 2016 ENC Individual Results

In winning the Individual Jack Hume played one of the best rounds of amateur golf in the world in 2016 at La Reserva. His 64 in Round 2 was an astonishing 8 shots better than any other player in the field.

2015 Mario Galliano (Spain)
2014 Guido Migliori (Italy)
2013 Adrien Saddier (France)
2012 Robin Kind (The Netherlands)
2011 Julien Brun (France)
2010 Nino Bertasio (Italy)
2009 Sam Hutsby (England)
2008 Shane Lowry (Ireland)
2007 Rory McIlroy (Ireland)

Past Sherry Cup Individual Winners

2006 Nigel Edwards (Wales)
2005 Gary Wolstenholme (England)
2004 Francesco Molinari (Italy)
2003 Gary Wolstenholme (England)
2002 Lee Harpin (Wales)
2001 Gary Wolstenholme (England)
2000 Gary Wolstenholme (England)
1999 Marcel Siem (Germany)
1998 Sergio Garcia (Spain)
1997 Sergio Garcia (Spain)
1996 Alvaro Salto (Spain)
1995 José María Zamora (Spain)
1994 Francisco Cea (Spain)
1993 Francisco Valera (Spain)
1992 Frederic Cupillar (France)
1991 Padraig Harrington (Ireland)
1990 Alvaro Prat (Spain)
1989 Diego Borrego (Spain)
1988 Yago Beamonte (Spain)
1987 Yago Beamonte (Spain)
1986 Borja Queipo de Llano (Spain)
1985 José L. Padila (Spain)
1984 John Marks (England)
1983 José L. de Bernardo (Spain)
1982 Borja Queipo de Llano (Spain)
1981 Veit Pagel (Germany)
1980 Jesús López (Spain)
1979 Veit Pagel (Germany)
1978 José L. de Bernardo (Spain)
1977 F. Jiménez (Spain)
1976 Alberto Croze (Italy)
1975 Veit Pagel (Germany)
1974 Veit Pagel (Germany)
1973 Alberto Croze (Italy)
1972 E. de la Riva and J. Gancedo (Spain)
1971 Alberto Croze (Italy)
1970 Henric Adam (England)

ME.

World Amateur Team Championship – 2023 Preview & Results

Posted on 17/10/2023 by Golf Bible

Saturday 21st October 2023

Round 4

USA (-36) won the 33rd Men’s World Amateur Team Championship by 11-shots.

The team finished the event off in style compiling the low round of the Championship; a 132 (-12), helped in no small part by a 64 from David FORD, the second lowest round in the tournament’s history.

It was the USA’s 16th win in the competition and they now will take custody of the Eisenhower Trophy until it’s next playing in 2025 at the Tenah Merah C.C. in Singapore.

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Team USA – Nick Dunlap, David Ford & Gordon Sargent (Photo: IGF)

NORWAY and AUSTRALIA (-25) tied for 2nd place with FRANCE (-24) 4th and NEW ZEALAND and ITALY (-23) tied 5th. It was Norway’s best ever finish in their 26 appearances to date.

IRELAND (-20) finished strongly to rise 11 places on the final day and secure a tied 8th finish.

ENGLAND (-14) finished tied 15th, WALES (-13) tied 17th and SCOTLAND (-10) tied 21st.

32 of the 36 teams finished the 72 holes with an under par score.

Team Results (Photo: IGF / Golf Genius)

Western Amateur champion Kazuma KOBORI (NZL) took the low Individual title with a 272 (-16) total. He rose eight places to secure the honour with a fine 65 (-7) in the final round.

Reigning U.S. Amateur champion Nick DUNLAP (USA) finished 2nd on -15 with France’s Bastien AMAT and Norway’s Herman WIBE SEKNE -14 one shot further back.

Leading Individual Results (Photo: IGF / Golf Genius)

Matt MCCLEAN (IRL) -11 produced the best performance by a GB&I player finishing tied 8th.

Connor GRAHAM (SCO) -10 again impressed at the highest level with a very consistent performance to finish tied 14th.

Five other GB&I players finished under par for the Championship. Tyler WEAVER (ENG) -8 was tied 17th, Tomi BOWEN (WAL) -6 tied 30th, Alex MAGUIRE (IRL), who came through the standings with a final day 65, -5 tied 36th, Jack BIGHAM (ENG) -3 tied 43rd and Liam NOLAN (IRL) -2 tied 50th.

GB&I Individual Results (Photo: IGF / Golf Genius)

Click here to view the – Men’s 2023 WATC Team Results

Click here to view the – Men’s 2023 WATC Individual Results

ME.

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Friday 20th October 2023

Round 3

A third round 136 (-8) helped USA (-24) extend their lead in the Men’s World Amateur Team Championship to 4-shots.

FRANCE & NORWAY (-20) tied 2nd are their nearest challengers, the Scandinavians posting a 134 score on Day 3.

AUSTRALIA (-19) 4th and CZECH REPUBLIC (-18) 5th round off the top 5.

Disappointingly the four home nation teams again made little progress in Abu Dhabi. SCOTLAND (-11) tied 16th and WALES, IRELAND & ENGLAND (-10) tied 19th now look destined to finish in the middle of the pack.

29 of the 36 teams are now under par, up three from the Round 2 number. NORWAY (-20), for the second day running, and SOUTH KOREA (-11) were the two biggest movers, both rising 9 places on the leaderboard. ITALY (-16) also enjoyed a good day rising 7 places in to 8th.

Round 3 Team Scores (Photo: IGF / Golf Genius)

The world’s best amateur Gordon SARGENT (USA) posted a 67 in Round 3 to move to the top of the Individual standings on 204 (-12).

Herman WIBE SEKNE (NOR), Jeff GUAN (AUS), Pietro BOVARI (ITA), Bastien AMAT (FRA), Nick DUNLAP (USA) and Nicolas QUINTERO (COL) are all tied 2nd on -11.

Matt MCCLEAN (IRL) is the best of the home nation players after a second consecutive 68 took him to -8 and tied 14th place. Connor GRAHAM (SCO) & Tyler WEAVER (ENG) -7 tied 16th, Tomi BOWEN (WAL) & James ASHFIELD (WAL) -5 tied 33rd, Calum SCOTT (SCO) -4 tied 38th and Barclay BROWN (ENG) -2 tied 48th are the best of the rest after 54 holes.

Round 3 Leading Individual Scores (Photo: IGF / Golf Genius)

ME.

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Thursday 19th October 2023

Round 2

USA (-16) moved ominously into the lead on Day 2 of the Men’s World Amateur Team Championship in the Middle East. They followed up yesterday’s joint best 135 (-9) with a 137 (-7) team score today.

CHINA and FRANCE (-15) are 1-shot back in tied 2nd with CZECH REPUBLIC and AUSTRALIA (-14) tied 4th.

After 36 holes ENGLAND (-8) are tied 15th (down 11 places), SCOTLAND & WALES (-7) tied 17th down 4 and 1 places) and IRELAND (-4) tied 23rd (up 3 places) after second rounds of 143 (-1), 140 (-4), 139 (-5) and 139 (-5) respectively at the Abu Dhabi G.C.

26 of the 36 teams are now under par, up three from yesterday. MEXICO (-12) tied 8th and NORWAY (-10) tied 11th with the biggest movers rising 13 places on the leaderboard. Mexico’s Round 2 133 (-11) team score was the best we have seen so far.

Round 2 Team Scores (Photo: IGF / Golf Genius)

15 year old Hugo LE GOFF (FRA), today starting on the 1st tee, again showed his liking for Abu Dhabi’s front nine. Three birdies and an eagle before a bogey on the 9th saw him post a second 32 for these holes. A 68 took up onto 135 (-9) for the Championship and into the Individual lead.

Pietro BOVARI (ITA), Zhang QIU (CHN), Nick DUNLAP (USA) and Filip JAKUBCIK (CZE) are all tied 2nd on -8.

Herman WIBE SEKNE (NOR) bounced back from an opening 73 with a Championship low 64 (-8) which included nine birdies.

Tyler WEAVER (ENG) -5 tied 19th remains the best of the 12 GB&I players competing. Matt MCCLEAN (IRL), James ASHFIELD (WAL) and Calum SCOTT (SCO) -4 tied 23rd, Tomi BOWEN (WAL) & Connor GRAHAM (SCO) -3 tied 35th and Barclay BROWN (ENG) -2 tied 45th are our other players under par at the half-way stage.

Round 2 Leading Individual Scores (Photo: IGF / Golf Genius)

ME.

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Wednesday 18th October 2023

Round 1

FRANCE and USA have taken the early lead in the Men’s World Amateur Team Championship after posting a 135 (-9) score on Day 1.

ENGLAND (-7) are tied 4th, SCOTLAND (-3) tied 13th, WALES (-2) tied 16th and IRELAND (+1) tied 26th after their rounds at the Abu Dhabi G.C.

23 of the 36 teams finished Round 1 with an under par total score.

Play got underway at 6.30am with Ahmad Skaik (UAE), son of Akram Skaik, the Director General of the Emirates Golf Federation, given the honour of hitting the opening tee shot. Conditions were excellent all day with temperatures reaching 36ºC.

Round 1 Team Scores (Photo: IGF / Golf Genius)

Starting on the 10th tee Benjamin REUTER (NED), who plays at Georgia Tech University, shot 31 on the front nine, which included three birdies and an eagle, to finish the day with a 66 (-6) to top the Individual standings.

1-shot back and tied 2nd are Hugo LE GOLF (FRA), aged 15 but surprisingly only the fifth youngest player in the field, and Gordon SARGENT (USA), who secured his PGA Tour card today by accumulating 20 points under the PGA Tour University Accelerated scheme, who both fired 65s (-5).

From the home nations Tyler WEAVER (ENG) -4 tied 4th, Barclay BROWN (ENG) -3 tied 11th, Connor GRAHAM (SCO) & Tomi BOWEN (WAL) -2 tied 26th, Calum SCOTT (SCO) -1 tied 38th and Jack BIGHAM (ENG), Matt MCCLEAN (IRL) & James ASHFIELD (WAL) Ev tied 46th all started their Championships with rounds of par or better.

Round 1 Leading Individual Scores (Photo: IGF / Golf Genius)

ME.

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17th October 2023

The 33rd Men’s World Amateur Team Championship (WATC), played for the Eisenhower Trophy, starts on Wednesday 18th October in Abu Dhabi.

This year the Championship will be hosted by the Emirates Golf Federation and played on the National Course at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club.

It was originally scheduled to be played in neighbouring Dubai on the Fire Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates.

It is the first time the event has been staged in the Middle East and sees it move to odd years to avoid a clash with the Summer Olympic Games in future years.

Due to the escalating costs of staging the WATC it is now being played on a single course with the field reduced to 36 teams.

The WATC is a biennial international amateur golf competition run by the International Golf Federation (IGF), formerly known as the World Amateur Golf Council.

The IGF comprises 152 national governing bodies of golf in 149 countries as well as tours and organizations that conduct championships. It is recognised by the International Olympic Committee as the body responsible for golf and as such, in addition to the Men’s and Women’s WATC’s it also organises the golf competitions in both the Olympics and Youth Olympics.

The WATC are hosted by rotation taking in Asia-Pacific, the Americas, Europe, Africa and for the first time in 2023 the Middle East.

The first WATC took place in 1958 and was played over the Old Course at St. Andrews. Bobby Jones captained the United States of America famously receiving the Freedom of the Town during the trip, although his team ended up losing a play-off to Australia for the title.

Competition Format

36 teams are competing in the 2023 WATC.

The three players from each team play 72 holes of stroke play over four days. The two lowest rounds recorded on each day count towards the team’s total score.

The winning team receive the Eisenhower Trophy. The Trophy was provided in 1958 by the American Friends of Golf through the United States Golf Association and the Royal and Ancient GolfGolf Club of St. Andrews, Scotland. It is named in honour of the then United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The inscription on the trophy reads: “To foster friendship and sportsmanship among the Peoples of the World.”

Players in the leading three teams receive gold, silver and bronze medals.

Whilst individual results are reported and the player with the lowest score is recognised at the closing ceremony there has historically been no prize awarded for this achievement.

GB&I Competitors

The home nations will be represented by the following players (WAGR as at 11th October): –

ENGLAND – Jack BIGHAM (#93), Barclay BROWN (#28), Tyler WEAVER (#188)

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England (Photo: IGF)

IRELAND – Alex MAGUIRE (#135), Matthew MCCLEAN (#57), Liam NOLAN (#124)

Ireland (Photo: IGF)

SCOTLAND – Connor GRAHAM (#203), Calum SCOTT (#27), Gregor TAIT (#251)

Scotland (Photo: IGF)

WALES – James ASHFIELD (#64), Tomi BOWEN (#259), Matt ROBERTS (#389)

Wales (Photo: IGF)

The other competing nations are as follows with those highlighted expected to be the most competitive.

ARGENTINA – Joaquín Ludueña (#669), Vicente Marzilio (#221), Segundo Oliva Pinto (#200)

AUSTRALIA – Jack Buchanan (#114), Jeffrey Guan (#56), Karl Vilips (#29)

AUSTRIA – Christoph Bleier (#104), Fabian Lang (#684), Florian Schweighofer (#626)

CANADA – Piercen Hunt (#252), Ashton McCulloch (#540), Brady McKinlay (#356)

CHINA – Xiangyun Bai (#112), Zihang Qiu (#108), Ziqin Zhou (#113)

COLOMBIA – Carlos Ardila Conde (#205), Manuel Jose Merizalde Padilla (#216), Nicolas Quintero (#763)

CZECH REPUBLIC – Petr Hruby (#68), Filip Jakubcik (#87), Louis Klein (#375)

DENMARK – Gustav Frimodt (#25), Frederik Kjettrup (#15), Jacob Skov Olesen (#283)

FINLAND – Elias Haavisto (#447), Markus Luoma (#290), Jesse Saareks (#1630)

FRANCE – Bastien Amat (#116), Paul Beauvy (#234), Hugo Le Goff (#591)

GERMANY – Jonas Baumgartner (#35), Tiger Christensen (#162), Tim Wiedemeyer (#139)

GUAM – Markus Nanpei (#NR), Eugene Park (#NR), Nalapon Vongjalorn (#NR)

GUATEMALA – Juan Ricardo Davila (#401), Gabriel Palacios (#201), Alejandro Villavicencio (#154)

INDIA – Shaurya Bhattacharya (#455), Rohit Narwal (#589), Yuvraj Singh (#213)

ITALY – Pietro Bovari (#77), Riccardo Fantinelli (#382), Flavio Michetti (#596)

JAPAN – Riura Matsui (#153), Minato Oshima (#210), Yuta Sugiura (#16)

SOUTH KOREA – Seonghyeon An (#769), Sungho Lee (#950), Donghyun Moon (#629)

MEXICO – Santiago De la Fuente del Valle (#118), José Cristobal Islas (#73), Omar Morales (#226)

MOROCCO – Soufiane Dahmane (#493), El Fakori Mehdi (#240), Hugo Mazen Trometter (#789)

NETHERLANDS – Jack Ingham (#161), Benjamin Reuter (#220), Lars van der Vight (#75)

NEW ZEALAND – Jayden Ford (#128), Samuel Jones (#106), Kazuma Kobori (#33)

NORWAY – Mats Ege (#58), Michael Mjaaseth (#59), Herman Wibe Sekne (#24)

SINGAPORE – Ryan Ang (#345), Troy Tian Storm (#NR), Hiroshi Tai (#67)

SOUTH AFRICA – Christo Lamprecht (#1) , Christiaan Maas (#14), Altin van der Merwe (#228)

SPAIN – Angel Ayora (#89), Jose Luis Ballester Barrio (#20), Luis Masaveu Roncal (#54)

SWEDEN – Albert Hansson (#49), Daniel Svard (#152), Tobias Jonsson (#31)

SWITZERLAND – Nicola Gerhardsen (#82), Marc Keller (#954), Maximilien Sturdza (#253)

CHINESE TAIPEI – Chi Chun Chen (#244), Chuan-Tai Lin (#72), Ching-Hung Su (#241)

THAILAND – Jiradech Chaowarat (#945), Ashita Piamkulvanich (#416), Parin Sarasmut (#1223)

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – Rayan Ahmed (#NR), Thomas Nesbitt (#3088), Ahmad Skaik (#1863)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA – Nick Dunlap (#4), David Ford (#5), Gordon Sargent (#2)

ZIMBABWE – Tafadzwa Nyamukondiwa (#2715), Keegan Shutt (#1526), David Amm (#1706)

Venue

The 2023 WATC will be played on the National Course at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club.

The club, with its iconic ‘falcon clubhouse’, is well known to golf fans having hosted 16 consecutive editions of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship between 2006-2021 on the DP World Tour.

The course was designed by Peter Harradine and opened for play in May 2000. It was carved out of the desert and features undulating fairways, fast greens and seven large water hazards.

This week it will be set up to play to 7,552 yards – the longest in the history of the event – and will have a par of 72. It has a slope of 155.

Hole 1 2          3 4 5          6 7          8          9         Total
Par 4 5          4 3          4 4 3 5 4 36
Yards 405 600      439 158 440 469 200 572 456 3,739

Hole 10 11 12        13 14 15 16        17 18 Total
Par 5          4 3          4 4 3 4 4 5 36
Yards 582      460 176 414      490 199 475 460 557 3,813

The Abu Dhabi Golf Club (Photo: Matt Hazey / Emirates Golf Federation)

Additional Information

Click here to view the – Official IGF World Amateur Team Championships Webpage

2022 WATC

ITALY won the Eisenhower Trophy at the 32nd World Amateur Team Championship (WATC) in France.

The competition was played on the Albatross Course at Le Golf National and on the Red Course at Golf de Saint-Nom-la-Brèteche.

It was the first time that Italy had won a medal, let alone gold, at the WATC.

Team Italy (Photo: IGF / USGA / Steve Gibbons)

ITALY finished on an impressive 541 -31 total with SWEDEN, whose Women’s team had won their WATC the previous week, missing out on a rare double by 1-shot. USA finished 3rd on -27, NORWAY -25 4th and SPAIN -23 5th.

WALES (-17), tied 8th, were delighted to finish as the leading home nation team. It was the Principality’s best result at the WATC since they came in fourth in 2006 with a team that consisted of Nigel Edwards, Rhys Davies and Llewellyn Matthews.

ENGLAND (-14) 14th, IRELAND (-8) tied 19th and SCOTLAND (+2) 33rd all finished lower than they would have hoped in Paris.

Team Results (Graphic: IGF / Golf Genius)

Tobias JONSSON (SWE) shot a final round 66 at Le Golf National to secure Low Individual honours with a 269 -17 total.

Tobias Jonsson (Photo: IGF / USGA / Steve Gibbons)

Taga SEMIKAWA (JAP), who had led from the opening day and started Round 4 with a 5-shot lead, sadly struggled to a disappointing 73 to finish second on -16.

Austin GREASER (USA) completed a consistent championship with a 67 to finish 3rd on 271 -15.

Archie DAVIES (WAL) had the best Individual score by a home nation player, finishing tied 9th with a 274 -12 result.

Looking at the our other leading home nation players Mark POWER (IRL) & Sam BAIRSTOW (ENG) -6 finished tied 25th, John GOUGH (ENG) -4 tied 31st, James ASHFIELD (WAL) -2 tied 40th and Calum SCOTT (SCO) & Luke HARRIES (WAL) Ev tied 46th.

Individual Results (Graphic: IGF / Golf Genius)

Click here to view the – Men’s 2022 WATC Team Results

Click here to view the – Men’s 2022 WATC Individual Results

Historic Results

GREAT BRITAIN & IRELAND (GB&I) have won the Eisenhower Trophy four times but only SCOTLAND have won it in their own right since each of the home nations started to compete separately.

The competion holds a special place in the story of English amateur Peter MCEVOY. He participated in the winning GB&I team in 1988, he also ‘won’ the Individual (284) that year and he went on to captain the GB&I team that won it again in 1998. A hat trick of Eisenhower Trophy achievements that may prove difficult for anyone else to match.

Here are the historic Men’s WATC results: –

Screenshot 2023-10-17 at 06.15.58

Future WATC Events

The International Golf Federation has confirmed the following future venues for the WATC: –

34th – 2025 – Singapore

35th – 2027 – Morocco

36th – 2029 – To be determined

ME.

R&A Men’s Home Internationals – 2023 Preview & Results

Posted on 04/08/2023 by Golf Bible

11th August 2023

England bounced back from their disappointing defeat against Wales yesterday to beat Ireland on the final day.

The three point margin of victory was also just enough – by 0.5 points – to lift the English in to top spot and therefore against the odds at the start of the day retain the title they won last year at Ballyliffin.

Despite losing to Scotland on the final day Wales finished 3rd. Scotland missed out by 0.5 points and had to settle for 4th place as the final table below shows.

Screenshot 2023-08-11 at 20.16.51

2023 Men’s Home Internationals Final Table (Graphic: Golfbox / The R&A)

Here is my assessment of the individual player contributions to the four teams with the star performers for each country highlighted in yellow: –

Screenshot 2023-08-11 at 22.21.02

Screenshot 2023-08-11 at 22.21.16

GolfBible Individual Player Performance Analysis

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DAY 3

WALES v. SCOTLAND

It was perhaps ‘after the Lord Mayor’s show’ for the Welsh today at Machynys where the Scottish team were determined to finish off the competition with a win.

After sharing the foursomes the Scots ran away with the singles picking up five of the eight points on offer.

Andrew DAVIDSON, who was unbeaten in singles all week, finished off his competition with a big 7&5 win against Tom MATTHEWS.

Screenshot 2023-08-11 at 20.15.35

Screenshot 2023-08-11 at 20.15.50

Wales v. Scotland (Graphic: Golfbox / The R&A)

IRELAND v. ENGLAND

England bounced back from yesterday’s poor loss to Wales with a resounding tournament winning victory against the Irish.

A 3-1 morning foursomes series win laid the foundation with Charlie CROCKETT and James CLARIDGE securing an important win on the 18th hole with an eagle. It was the pairing’s third win in the format.

Arron EDWARDS-HILL, Matty DODD-BERRY and Zach CHEGWIDDEN secured early singles wins to ensure the match would be won. It was then just a question of whether the team could garner sufficient points to also take the overall win.

Ultimately the responsibility fell to Charlie Crockett who delivered the critical final point, beating Caolan RAFFERTY by 1 Hole, which secured the title.

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Ireland v. England (Graphic: Golfbox / The R&A)

Click here to view the – Golfbox R&A Men’s Home Internationals Results

ME.

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10th August 2023

DAY 2

ENGLAND v. WALES

Wales shocked England by winning six of the eight afternoon singles and coming from behind to claim a memorable 7-5 victory.

England went into the singles with a 3-1 lead after coming out on the right side of four tight foursomes games.

James ASHFIELD boosted his Walker Cup chances and set the tone with a good 2&1 win against Jack BIGHAM.

Tomi BOWEN, Matt ROBERTS, Tom BASTOW, James NASH and Tom MATTHEWS then added their names to the Welsh roll of honour which left England’s title hopes in tatters.

Screenshot 2023-08-10 at 18.52.52

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England v. Wales (Graphic: Golfbox / The R&A)

SCOTLAND v. IRELAND

Ireland won the morning foursomes 2.5-1.5 and the afternoon singles 5.0-3.0 to complete a deserved win over Scotland.

With England losing to Wales the Irish are now in the box seat for the 2023 title.

Marc BOUCHER and Robert MORAN led the way for the Irish with two wins in the match.

Connor GRAHAM starred for Scotland with an impressive foursomes win alongside Gregor TAIT and a notable singles win against Liam Nolan.

Screenshot 2023-08-10 at 20.30.50

Screenshot 2023-08-10 at 20.37.21

Scotland v. Ireland (Graphic: Golfbox / The R&A)

Click here to view the – Golfbox R&A Men’s Home Internationals Results

ME.

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9th August 2023

DAY 1

ENGLAND v. SCOTLAND

England took control of the opening match of this year’s Men’s Home Internationals with a 3-1 victory in the morning foursomes.

They also won the singles 5-3 but these were clearly hard fought with six of the eight games requiring all 18 holes to be played.

Jack BIGHAM, Zach CHEGWIDDEN and James CLARIDGE won both of their games on Day 1 for England whilst Tyler WEAVER won his foursomes and tied his singles.

Andrew DAVIDSON was the best of the Scots winning his foursomes alongside Gregor Graham before securing a 0.5 point in his singles against Matt Dodd-Berry. Jack MCDONALD and Niall SHEILS DONEGAN won their two singles beating English Walker Cup hopefuls Arron-Edwards-Hill and Charlie Crockett respectively.

Screenshot 2023-08-09 at 20.53.29

England v. Scotland (Graphic: Golfbox / The R&A)

IRELAND v. WALES

Ireland won the foursomes 3-1 and the singles 5-3 to also record an 8-4 victory in their opening game.

Marc BOUCHER, Liam NOLAN and Caolan RAFFERTY all finished Wednesday with two wins to their name for the Irish.

James ASHFIELD, Tomi BOWEN, Caolan BURFORD and James NASH were all unbeaten on Day 1 for the Welsh who look like they will be competitive this year.

Screenshot 2023-08-09 at 20.53.58

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Ireland v. Wales (Graphic: Golfbox / The R&A)

Click here to view the – Golfbox R&A Men’s Home Internationals Results

ME.

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4th August 2023 (Updated 7th August)

This year’s R&A Men’s Home Internationals will be played at Machynys Peninsula G.C. in Wales on 9th-11th August 2023.

ENGLAND will be defending the Raymond Trophy which they won at Balllyliffin G.C. in Ireland last year.

With the selection of the Great Britain & Ireland Walker Cup team expected to take place in the next few weeks this event will be the final opportunity for the players competing to impress.

This article will focus on the Men’s Home Internationals and will be updated with further information once the Championship starts.

Machynys (Photo: Machynys Peninsula G.C.)

Combined Event

In 2022 The R&A and four Home Golf Unions decided to combine the women’s and men’s home internationals into one event.

The R&A first introduced this type of change in August 2021 when they combined both the Boys’ and Girls’ Home Internationals and Senior Men’s and Women’s Home Internationals at Woodhall Spa.

Whilst the R&A Women’s and Men’s Home Internationals are now given primary importance the International Trophy and Raymond Trophy are still presented to the leading country in the women’s and men’s matches.

Whilst I am all for shared venues, which ease administration and add to the overall spectacle, I remain unconvinced about the merits of mixed individual and team events and as such have never been supportive of this change.

In my opinion the separate men’s and women’s competitions, which have a lot of history and tradition, should have remained the priority and if it was felt a combined trophy was necessary this should have been the secondary add-on.

Last year The R&A failed to provides any (public) scoring for the men’s and women’s competitions but I am pleased to report that this year they are intending to do so.

Machynys (Photo: Machynys Peninsula G.C.)

Match Format

Following the move to a combined Home Internationals event the men’s teams were reduced from 11 to 9 players.

Each country plays every other team over the three competition days. Each match starts with a mens game and alternates with a womens game thereafter.

Men’s matches now consist of 4 foursomes and 8 singles. This is 1 foursomes and 2 singles less than the historic format.

One point is awarded for a win in each foursomes and singles with a half point for a tied match. Each team will be awarded one match point for winning an overall match and a half point for a tie.

The final team positions are determined according to the highest number of match points earned. Ties are broken by reviewing the total number of individual game points.

The winning team receives the Raymond Trophy.

The Raymond Trophy

Historically the English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh Golf Unions took it in turns to host and run the home internationals. In 2021 The R&A took over responsibility for it with the hosting rota continuing.

The men’s home internationals were first played in 1932 and this year’s ‘staging’ will be the 82nd playing of this prestigious event.

Since 1952 the winning team has received The Raymond Trophy which is named after its donor, the late Raymond Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer was an English administrator, golfer and team captain who was very prominent in the amateur game in the 1940’s and 1950’s.

In the 81 competitions played to date England have won 39, Scotland 21, Ireland 13 and Wales 1. The remaining 7 were tied before it was decided that ties would be resolved by using game points.

The Raymond Trophy (Photo: Ayrshire Golf Blog)

2023 Men’s Players

The four national golf unions have selected the following male players to represent their countries this year. I have added their World Amateur Golf Rankings as at 2nd August 2023 in brackets.

ENGLAND
Jack BIGHAM – Harpenden (95)
Zach CHEGWIDDEN – Ingrebourne Links (760)
James CLARIDGE – Enville (166)
Charlie CROCKETT – Addington Palace (131)
Matthew DODD-BERRY – Royal Liverpool (262)
Arron EDWARDS-HILL – Chelmsford (147)
Will HOPKINS – Belton Park (227)
Dylan SHAW-RADFORD – Huddersfield (345)
Tyler WEAVER – Bury St. Edmunds (341)

Barclay Brown (25) and John Gough (14) are unavailable as they are competing in the U.S. Amateur Championship (14-20 August 2023).

IRELAND
Marc BOUCHER – Carton House (834)
Colm CAMPBELL – Warrenpoint (510)
Paul CONROY – Enniscorthy (405)
Max KENNEDY – Royal Dublin (85)
Alex MAGUIRE – Layton & Bettystown (169)
Robert MORAN – Castle (215)
Liam NOLAN – Galway (156)
Caolan RAFFERTY – Dundalk (65)
David SHIEL – Enniscrone (2,276)

Hugh Foley (133), Matthew McClean (62) and Mark Power (93) are unavailable as they are competing in the U.S. Amateur Championship.

SCOTLAND
Angus CARRICK – Cragielaw (702)
Andrew DAVIDSON – Crail (427)
Connor GRAHAM – Blairgowrie (192)
Gregor GRAHAM – Blairgowrie (485)
Jack MCDONALD – Roxburghe (953)
Oliver MUKHERJEE – Loretto School (470)
Niall SHEILS DONEGAN – Mill Valley (859)
Gregor TAIT – Aldeburgh (270)
Matthew WILSON – Forres (566)

Calum Scott (34) is unavailable as he is competing in the U.S. Amateur Championship.

WALES
James ASHFIELD – Delamere Forest (83)
Theo BAKER – Celtic Manor (3,552)
Tom BASTOW – Isle of Purbeck (1,586)
Tomi BOWEN – Welshpool (335)
Caolan BURFORD – Rhuddlan (455)
Archie DAVIES – Carlisle (113)
Tom MATTHEWS – Aldersley Green (2,349)
James NASH – Ormskirk (498)
Matt ROBERTS – Royal Porthcawl (387)

Jonathan Bale (707) is unavailable as he is competing in the U.S. Amateur Championship.

Since the team selections were announced the English, Scottish and Welsh Closed Amateur Championships have been played. Interestingly the three champions, Ben Brown, Cameron Adam and Max Weaver respectively, are all conspicuous by their absence.

Venue – Machynys

The Monk’s Island course at Machynys opened in 2005 and is located west of Swansea, near Llanelli.

It is a Nicklaus (Gary rather than Jack) designed 7,121 championship links, albeit the front nine has more of a parkland feel.

It plays to a traditional par of 72; two 36’s with two par 3’s and par 5’s on each side.

R&A Home International Websites

R&A Women’s and Men’s Home Internationals

Golfbox R&A Men’s Home Internationals Results

Golfbox R&A Women’s Home Internationals Results

Golfbox R&A Women’s & Men’s Home Internationals Results

2023 Weather Forecast (as at 7th August 2023)

The forecast is looking reasonably good for the opening two days but a little challenging for the decisive final day: –

Wed. 9th Aug. – Cloudy / Wind 11 mph SW / Temp. Min 15º, Max 20º
Thurs. 10th Aug. – Sunny / Wind 15 mph SE / Temp. Min 16º, Max 23º
Fri. 11th Aug. – Light Rain / Wind 22 mph SW / Temp. Min 15º, Max 18º

2022 R&A Men’s Home Internationals

ENGLAND won the Men’s Raymond Trophy last year at Ballyliffin G.C. in Ireland.

England’s Men’s Team (Photo: England Golf)

Day 1 Results
England 9.0 – Wales 3.0
Scotland 3.0 – Ireland 9.0

Day 2 Results
England 7.5 – Scotland 4.5
Wales 3.0 – Ireland 9.0

Day 3 Results
Scotland 7.5 v. Wales 4.5
Ireland 5.5 v. England 6.5

Here’s the final Men’s Home Internationals Results Table.

Screenshot 2022-08-05 at 20.41.48

Here is my Men’s Individual Performance table which confirms that England’s Arron EDWARDS-HILL was the most successful player in the 2022 Raymond Trophy contest.

Screenshot 2022-08-05 at 20.55.04

Screenshot 2022-08-05 at 20.41.35

ENGLAND also won the inaugural R&A Trophy for the combined Women’s and Men’s Home Internationals match.

IRELAND won the Women’s International Shield.

Click here to view the full – R&A Womens & Mens Home Internationals Results

Historic Results

Click here to view all of the – Men’s Home Internationals Historic Results

ME.

European Men’s Amateur Team Championship – 2023 Preview & Results

Posted on 10/07/2023 by Golf Bible

15th July 2023

Match Play Flight A (1-8) – Final and 3rd & 4th Place Match

Spain (2) beat Denmark (1) 4-3 to win the 2023 European Men’s Amateur Team Championship Final at Royal Waterloo G.C. in Belgium.

The Victorious Spanish Team (Photo: EGA)

Spain’s two morning foursomes wins proved pivotal, particularly the one by Masaveu and Ayora on the 22nd Hole, as their top order struggled in the early singles before he late recovery saw them home.

Denmark v. Spain Championship Final Results (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

Ireland (4) beat England (3) 6-1 to win the bronze medal in a one-sided 3rd and 4th Place Match.

Ireland v. England 3rd & 4th Place Match Results (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

Here are the full Flight A Match Play results and upper half final standings: –

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Flight A Match Play Results and Final Standings (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

Click here to view the – Match Play Flight A Final Scores

Match Play Flight B (9-16) Day 3

Finland (10) beat Wales (12) 3-2 in the Flight B Final to earn 9th place in the Championship.

Wales v. Finland 9th & 10th Place Match Results (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

Here are the full Flight A Match Play results and lower half final standings: –

Flight B Match Play Results and Final Standings (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

Click here to view the – Match Play Flight B Day 3 Scores

Here is my assessment of the Individual performances from the 18 home nation players that were competing.

Matt MCCLEAN (IRL), Barclay BROWN (ENG) and James ASHFIELD (WAL) were my three star men.

Screenshot 2023-07-15 at 16.57.50

ME.

14th July 2023

Match Play Flight A (1-8) – Semi-Finals

Denmark (1) proved to be too strong for Ireland (4) in the opening semi-final beating them 4.5-2.5.

Whilst the morning foursomes were shared the Dane’s comfortably took the singles. Only Liam NOLAN was able to win a game for the Irish in this series.

Denmark v. Ireland Semi-Final Results (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

In a tighter match England (3) lost 4.5-2.5 to Spain (2) in the second semi-final. Having lost both of the morning foursomes England needed a big bounce back in the singles to progress. In the end only Barclay BROWN and James CLARIDGE were able to produce wins which left the team short.

England v. Spain Semi-Final Results (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

Click here to view the – Match Play Flight A Semi-Final Scores

Match Play Flight B (9-16) Day 2

Wales (12) beat Switzerland (9) 3-2 to reach the Flight B Final. James NASH and Caolan BURFORD continued their strong partnership in the foursomes before good wins from James ASHFIELD and Matt ROBERTS in the singles sealed the deal.

Switzerland v. Wales Match Results (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

Click here to view the – Match Play Flight B Day 2 Scores

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13th July 2023

Match Play Flight A (1-8) – Quarter Finals

All four Quarter Finals went the way of the highest seeded teams.

Each Flight A match consists of two foursomes and five singles.

Here’s a summary of the Quarter Final results: –

Flight A Quarter Finals Results (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

Ireland (4) beat France (5) 4.0-3.0 in a tighter match. Two late singles wins from Matt MCCLEAN, who had earlier also won his foursomes with Caolan RAFFERTY, and Alex MAGUIRE helped the Irish over the line.

Ireland v. France Results (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

England (3) beat Netherlands (6) 5.5-1.5 winning both of the foursomes and three of the five singles. John GOUGH and Jack BIGHAM paired up successfully in the morning before going on to both win their singles in the afternoon.

England v. Netherlands Results (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

Click here to view the – Match Play Flight A Quarter Finals Scores

Match Play Flight B (9-16) Day 1

Wales (12) beat Germany (13) by 4.5-0.5 as they seek to finish as high up the rankings as they can and more importantly extinguish any possibility of relegation to Division 2.

Wales v. Germany Results (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

Click here to view the – Match Play Flight B Day 1 Scores

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12th July 2023

Stroke Play Qualifying – Round 2

Denmark (-32) earned medalist honours in the 36 hole Stroke Play Qualifying competition at the European Men’s Amateur Team Championship.

The lowest five scores from each six-man team counted towards each countries round and total scores at Royal Waterloo Golf Club in Belgium.

Spain (-29), England (-27), Ireland (-23), France (-20), Netherlands (-17), Italy (-16) and Sweden were the other teams to qualify for the all-important top 8 Flight A Match Play Stage which will determine who takes home the trophy and medals later this week.

Team Stroke Play Qualifying Results (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

England (-27) finished 3rd with round scores of 350 and 343.

England Team Stroke Play Qualifying Results (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

Barclay BROWN (ENG) -10 finished 2nd in the Individual rankings and was therefore the leading GB&I player in the field.

Barclay Brown’s Stroke Play Qualifying Rounds 1 & 2 Scorecard (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

Ireland (-23) finished 4th with round scores of 352 and 345.

Caolan RAFFERTY (-7) 5th and Max KENNEDY (-7) 8th were their leading contributors over the two days.

Ireland Team Stroke Play Qualifying Results (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

Wales (-5) finished 12th with round scores of 350 and a disappointing 365 which sadly saw them tumble out of contention.

Matt ROBERTS (-7) 10th can be pleased with his efforts in the Stroke Play Qualifying.

Wales Team Stroke Play Qualifying Results (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

Here are the leading Individual scores from Belgium with the recent European Men’s Amateur champion José BALLESTER (ESP) -11 again showing his class: –

Individual Stroke Play Qualifying Results – Top 30 (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

The average score from the 96 players was 72.16 (+.16) in Round 2.

Click here to view the Stroke Play Qualifying Leaderboards – Team and Individual

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11th July 2023

Stroke Play Qualifying – Round 1

Denmark (-15) and Spain (-15) delivered the best Round 1 scores on the opening day of the Stroke Play Qualifying competition at Royal Waterloo G.C.

England (-10) and Wales (-10) are 6th and 7th respectively, after a applying the sixth player score to break the tie, and Ireland (-8) 10th.

Team Stroke Play Qualifying Round 1 Scores (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

Tiger CHRISTENSEN (GER) produced the lowest Round 1 score with a 64 (-8). European Amateur champion José BALLESTER (ESP) and Jack INGHAM (NED) 65 (-7) were one shot further back on a low scoring day.

Individual Stroke Play Qualifying Round 1 Scores – Top 30 (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

The lowest GB&I round came from England’s Barclay BROWN who posted a 66 (-6) which included an eagle and six birdies.

Barclay Brown’s Stroke Play Qualifying Round 1 Scorecard (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

Welsh pair James ASHFIELD and Matt ROBERTS both recorded 68’s (-4) with Liam NOLAN (IRL), Dylan SHAW-RADFORD (ENG) and Max KENNEDY (IRL) nearly as impressive with 3-under 69’s.

The average score from the 96 players was 71.80 (-0.2) in Round 1.

Click here to view the Stroke Play Qualifying Leaderboards – Team and Individual

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10th July 2023

Introduction

The 40th European Men’s Amateur Team Championship will be played between Tuesday 11th and Saturday 15th July 2025 at Royal Waterloo G.C. in Belgium.

England, Ireland and Wales will all be competing this week. Scotland were relegated to Division 2 at last year’s Championship.

In a Walker Cup year the performances of the chosen players will be carefully scrutinised by The R&A selectors.

Spain are the defending champions having beaten Denmark in last year’s final at Royal St. George’s G.C. in England.

The 2022 Spanish Team (Photo: European Golf Association)

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 page throughout the competition and score links to all of the other Championships on the Results page of this website and on Twitter and Threads.

2023 Teams

16 national teams of 6 players will contest the 2023 European Men’s Amateur Team Championship.

The teams competing are Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Wales.

Just two of these teams, Estonia and Wales, will be represented by their top six ranked players in the latest WAGR list.

On paper Spain, Ireland, England, Germany, France, Denmark and Sweden appear to be the strongest teams likely to challenge for the medals.

The 2023 home nation teams are made up of the following players: –

ENGLAND – Jack BIGHAM, Barclay BROWN, James CLARIDGE, Arron EDWARDS-HILL, John GOUGH, Dylan Shaw-RADFORD

The English selectors have remained loyal to Arron Edwards-Hill and Dylan Shaw-Radford when some would have opted for one or both of Charlie CROCKETT and Will HOPKINS, two U.S. college players who have arguably shown better recent form.

The 2023 English Team (Photo: European Golf Association)

IRELAND – Max KENNEDY, Alex MAGUIRE, Matt MCCLEAN, Liam NOLAN, Mark POWER, Caolan RAFFERTY

Hugh FOLEY found his form too late to break into this line-up which combines experience and quality nicely and should finish in the medals. Alex Maguire, playing off +7.8, has the lowest handicap in the field.

The 2023 Irish Team (Photo: European Golf Association)

WALES – James ASHFIELD, Tomi BOWEN, Caolan BURFORD, Archie DAVIES, James NASH, Matt ROBERTS

The Welsh team picked itself and is as strong as I can remember for many years. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them perform well in Belgium this week.

The 2023 Welsh Team (Photo: European Golf Association)

Format / Schedule

The Championship is run by the European Golf Association, this year in partnership with The Royal Belgian Golf Federation.

Two rounds of stroke play qualifying are completed on the first two days, with the lowest five scores from each team counting. All ties will be broken by using the two non-counting scores.

These results then determine a seeded match play draw. The top 8 qualifying teams will play in a first flight (A), which will determine the medalists, and the next eight a second flight (B).

Fight A therefore starts off with 1st v. 8th, 2nd v. 7th, 3rd v. 6th and 4th v. 5th. Winning teams advance in their brackets while losing teams play against other defeated nations to determine the final positions 1-19.

The teams in Flight A play 2 foursomes and 5 singles whilst losing teams and those in Flight B play 1 foursomes and 4 singles.

A win earns 1 point, a draw half a point and a loss no points in all of the individual games that make up a match.

The teams that finish 14th to 16th in the match play stage will be relegated to the Division 2 Championship for 2024.

Royal Waterloo’s 12th Hole (Photo: Royal Waterloo G.C.)

Royal Waterloo G.C., Belgium

Royal Waterloo Golf Club, situated 20 miles south of Brussels, was founded in 1923 and is therefore celebrating it’s centenary this year.

The Club moved to Lasne in 1960 and now has 45 holes in play; the La Marache (18), Le Lion (18) and Le Bois-Héros (9) courses.

The Championship is being played on the La Marache course which was designed by the English architect Fred Hawtree and opened in 1961. Fred’s son Martin oversaw the renovation of the greens to USGA specification in 2004/05 with the bunkers also completely rebuilt in 2022.

An undulating, tree lined course it plays to 6,859 yards off the Black Tees and has a par of 72. It has a Course Rating of 73.6 and a Slope Rating of 133.

This is the third time the European Men’s Amateur Team Championship has been staged in Belgium. Waterloo is following in the footsteps of Brussels in 1961 (when Sweden won) and Royal Antwerp in 1995 (when Scotland won).

Royal Waterloo’s 18th Green and Clubhouse (Photo: Royal Waterloo G.C.)

Weather Forecast

This week’s weather forecast for Belgium looks very good with good playing conditions currently expected throughout the week.

Tue 11th July – Sunny Intervals. Wind 11 mph SW. Temp. Min. 15°C / Max. 28°C.
Wed 12th July – Sunny Intervals. Wind 15 mph SW. Temp. Min. 12°C / Max. 22°C.
Thur 13th July – Sunny Intervals. Wind 12 mph N. Temp. Min. 11°C / Max. 22°C.
Fri 14th July – Sunny Intervals. Wind 7 mph W. Temp. Min. 16°C / Max. 25°C.
Sat 15th July – Sunny Intervals. Wind 11 mph N. Temp. Min. 15°C / Max. 27°C.

EGA Website Links – 2023 Scores / Information

Stroke Play Qualifying Leaderboards – Team and Individual

Match Play Draw / Results – Flight A and Flight B

Full Player List

European Golf Association Championship Website

2022 European Men’s Amateur Team Championship

Match Play Flight A

Spain (1) beat Denmark (5) 4.5-2.5 last year to win the European Men’s Amateur Team Championship at Royal St. George’s G.C.

Denmark (5) beat England (3) 5-2 to secure 3rd place with the hosts having to settle for 4th.

Ireland defeated Italy 3-2 to take 5th place.

Click here to view the – Flight A Match Play Results

Match Play Flight B

Wales (12) beat Belgium (15) 4-1 to finish in 13th place in the Championship.

Click here to view the – Flight B Match Play Results

Match Play Flight C

Scotland (17) beat Czech Republic (18) 3-2 in the final match of the three team ’round robin’ event to secure 17th place in the Championship.

It was of course a hollow victory as Scotland had already joined the Czech Republic and Portugal in being relegated to Division 2 following the Stroke Play Qualifying.

Click here to view the – Flight C Match Play Results

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Stroke Play Qualifying

Spain secured the top seeding for the Flight A Match Play competition with a 693 (-7) total.

England (-5) finished 2nd and Ireland (+4) 8th to also make the all-important Flight A which determines the medalists.

Wales (+15) were 12th so contested the Flight B competition.

Scotland (+26) were a hugely disappointing 17th and ended up in Flight C and certain relegation to Division 2 for the 2023 competition.

Team Stroke Play Qualifying Results (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

Julien SALE (FRA) shot two rounds of 67 to head the Individual standings on -6.

Arron EDWARDS-HILL (ENG) -4 was the leading GB&I player over the 36 holes finishing in 5th place.

John GOUGH (ENG) -3 6th, Caolan RAFFERTY (IRL) -2 8th – including a best of the competition 65 in Round 2, Mark POWER (IRL) -1 15th, Calum SCOTT (SCO) -1 21st, Olly HUGGINS (ENG) Ev 29th and Sam BAIRSTOW (ENG) Ev 33rd were all par or better for their respective teams.

Individual Stroke Play Qualifying Results – Top 30 (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

Click here to view the Stroke Play Qualifying Results – Team and Individual

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In overall terms Sam BAIRSTOW (ENG), Liam NOLAN (IRL), James ASHFIELD (WAL) and Calum SCOTT (SCO) were the leading home nation players in 2022.

Screenshot 2022-07-10 at 07.50.57

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 5, Sweden 3 and Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy and Wales once each.

Click here to view the full list of – European Men’s Amateur Team Championship Past Winners

ME.

Men’s European Nations Championship – 2023 Preview & Results

Posted on 14/04/2023 by Golf Bible

22nd April 2023

Congratulations to Josh BERRY, Arron EDWARDS-HILL, John GOUGH and Dylan SHAW-RADFORD who steered ENGLAND to victory in the 2023 European Nations Championship at RCG Sotogrande.

England Celebrate Their Team Win (Photo: Josh Berry)

After an even par final round ENGLAND finished with an 872 (+8) total with ITALY (+11) 2nd and SPAIN (+14) 3rd.

SCOTLAND (+16) were 4th, IRELAND (+47) 13th and WALES (+48) 14th in the 17 team event.

Click here to view the – 2023 ENC Men’s Team Results

Final Team Results (Graphic: RCG Sotogrande / Golfbox)

Albert HANSSON (SWE) beat John GOUGH (ENG) in a sudden death play-off-to win the Individual title after both players finished on 286 (-2). The consolation for Gough was that it was his 69 (-3), the joint best round of the day, that went a long way to lifting England to the Team win.

Angel AYORA (ESP) and James ASHFIELD (WAL) finished two shots further back on Even par and in tied 3rd place.

The other leading GB&I players were Gregor TAIT (SCO) +7, who was tied 11th, Dylan SHAW-RADFORD (ENG) +8 tied 15th, Josh BERRY (ENG) and Gregor GRAHAM (SCO) +9 tied 19th and Arron EDWARDS-HILL (ENG) and Connor GRAHAM (SCO) +10 tied 24th.

Click here to view the – 2023 ENC Men’s Individual Results

Final Individual Results (Graphic: RCG Sotogrande / Golfbox)

ME.

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21st April 2023

SPAIN (+6) lead the Men’s European Nations Championship after 54 holes but with ENGLAND (+8), SCOTLAND (+8), ITALY (+9) and FRANCE (+10) all within 4-shots we can expect an exciting finale at RCG Sotogrande tomorrow.

IRELAND (+29) are 12th and WALES (+37) 15th heading into the final round.

Round 3 Team Scores (Graphic: RCG Sotogrande / Golfbox)

Reigning Boys’ Amateur champion Albert HANSSON (SWE) -5 holds a 3-shot lead over Angel AYORA (ESP) in the Individual competition.

James ASHFIELD (WAL) and John GOUGH (ENG) +1 are tied 3rd, Gregor GRAHAM (SCO) +2 tied 6th, Matt MCCLEAN (IRL) and Gregor TAIT (SCO) +4 tied 11th, Arron EDWARDS-HILL (ENG) +5 tied 16th and Matthew WILSON (SCO), Dylan SHAW-RADFORD (ENG) and Josh BERRY (ENG) +7 tied 25th at the end of Day 3.

Round 3 Individual Scores (Graphic: RCG Sotogrande / Golfbox)

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20th April 2023

At the top of the Team leaderboard SCOTLAND (-1) lead ITALY and FRANCE (Ev) by 1-shot after the second round of the Men’s European Nations Championship at RCG Sotogrande.

ENGLAND (+3) are 6th, IRELAND (+15) 12th and WALES (+16) 13th with two rounds still to play.

Round 2 Team Scores (Graphic: RCG Sotogrande / Golfbox)

Nicola GERHARDSEN (SUI), Gregor GRAHAM (SCO) and James ASHFIELD (WAL) -5 lead the Individual competition after all three shot under par rounds on Day 2.

Matt MCCLEAN (IRL) and John GOUGH (ENG) Ev are tied 12th, Josh BERRY (ENG), Gregor TAIT (SCO) and Connor GRAHAM (SCO) +2 T17, Arron EDWARDS-HILL (ENG) +3 tied 22nd and Josh HILL (IRL) and Dylan SHAW-RADFORD (ENG) +5 tied 33rd.

Round 2 Individual Scores (Graphic: RCG Sotogrande / Golfbox)

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19th April 2023

At the end of Day 1 SCOTLAND (-5) lead the 2023 Men’s European Nations Championship by 1-shot from FRANCE with the CZECH REPUBLIC (-3) 3rd, ENGLAND (-2) 4th and FINLAND (+1) 5th.

WALES (+6) are 11th and IRELAND (+12) 14th with both teams having work to do over the next three days.

Round 1 Team Scores (Graphic: RCG Sotogrande / Golfbox)

John GOUGH (ENG) shot a five under 67 in Round 1, which included six birdies, to take a 2-shot lead in the Individual competition.

James ASHFIELD (WAL) -3 is second, Gregor TAIT (SCO) and Connor GRAHAM (SCO) -2 tied 5th, Gregor GRAHAM (SCO) and Matt MCCLEAN (IRL) -1 tied 12th, Arron EDWARDS-HILL (ENG) +1 tied 24th and Josh BERRY (ENG) and Dylan SHAW-RADFORD (ENG) +2 tied 31st.

Round 1 Individual Scores (Graphic: RCG Sotogrande / Golfbox)

ME.

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14th April 2023

The Men’s European Nations Championship (ENC) starts on Wednesday 19th April at Real Club de Golf Sotogrande in Southern Spain.

RCG Sotogrande is the permanent home of the ENC and this will be the 15th playing of the event.

It is a 72 hole stroke play Team and Individual competition.

Real Club de Golf Sotogrande

Field
17 four-man teams (68 players) will play for the Team prize. An additional six players invited by both RCG Sotogrande and the Spanish Golf Federation will contest the Individual competition, making a total field of 74 players.

The following players have been selected to represent the four competing home nations in 2023: –

England – Josh BERRY, John GOUGH, Arron EDWARDS-HILL, Dylan SHAW-RADFORD

Ireland – Joshua HILL, Matt MCCLEAN, Robert MORAN, Peter O’KEEFFE

Scotland – Connor GRAHAM, Gregor GRAHAM, Gregor TAIT, Matthew WILSON

Wales – James ASHFIELD, Caolan BURFORD, Paddy MULLINS, Matt ROBERTS

A Women’s ENC, made up of three player teams, also takes place alongside the Men’s competition. Only Ireland have entered from the four home nations this year.

Tee Times / Scores
Click here to view the – 2023 ENC Men’s Tee Times

Click here to view the – 2023 ENC Men’s Team Scores

Click here to view the – 2023 ENC Men’s Individual Scores

Format and Prizes
72 holes of stroke play, with 18 holes played daily, will be contested by all of the players. There is no cut.

In the Team event the best three 18-hole scores from the four players count towards the overall total.

The Individual prize is awarded to the lowest scoring player. Ties will be broken in line with the Team approach outlined above.

Winning Team members each receive a replica of the Nations Trophy. The Individual champion receives a trophy and a bright yellow jacket.

In 1970 The Sherry Cup, the precursor of the European Nations Cup, was established. Former Individual winners of this include Padraig Harrington and Sergio Garcia. (see below for the full list of past Individual winners).

In 1973 a Women’s event started to be played alongside the Men’s.

In 1983 Sotogrande hosted the Spanish Amateur Championship with Jose Maria Olazabel victorious.

Sotogrande was awarded royal patronage by HM King Juan Carlos I in 1994.

Between 1996 and 2001, in tandem with nearby San Roque GC, the course hosted the European Tour’s Qualifying School.

In 2006 The Sherry Cup was rebranded as the European Nations Cup and in 2017 become known as the European Nations Championship played for the Sotogrande Cup.

The Black Tee Championship Course at Sotogrande plays 6,492m with a par of 72. The front nine measures 3,163m and the back 3,329m.

Weather Forecast
The forecast looks great albeit as always the winds will be a factor, particularly in the afternoon. This can cause problems given the numerous water hazards on the course.

Wednesday 19th – Sunny Intervals Min. 14°C / Max. 21°C; E 22mph
Thursday 20th – Sunny Min. 15°C / Max. 22°C; SE 17mph
Friday 21st – Sunny Min. 15°C / Max. 21°C; E 18mph
Saturday 22nd – Sunny Min. 15°C / Max. 22°C; SE 16mph

Past ENC Winners

The home nations have an excellent record, particularly in recent years, in this event.

Team Competition

2022 Spain 2022 ENC Men’s Team Results

SPAIN (+13) completed a wire-to-wire victory last year at RCG Sotogrande.

ENGLAND (+35) finished 2nd, 22-shots behind the home team, with ITALY (+40) coming in 3rd.

WALES (+49) tied 8th, IRELAND (+50) 10th and SCOTLAND (+65) 13th.

Team Results (Graphic: RCG Sotogrande / Golfbox)

2021 Cancelled
2020 Cancelled

2019 England 2019 ENC Team Results

Defending champions England (+14) retained the European Nations Championship in Spain. Their 878 total was 8 shots better than The Netherlands (+22).

Ireland (+23) were third and Wales (+29), who recorded the lowest final day score (213), were an encouraging 4th. Scotland (+37) had a poor final day and fell away into 8th.

Gareth Jenkins (Manager), Tom Plumb, Tom Sloman, Bailey Gill and Ben Jones
(Photos: @EnglandGolf)

2018 England 2018 ENC Team Results

England – l-r Gareth Jenkins (Manager), David Hague, Gian-Marco Petrozzi, Todd Clements, Graham Walker (Coach) and Matthew Jordan (Photo: Graham Walker)

2017 Wales 2017 ENC Team Results

Wales – l-r Josh Davies, David Boote, Jack Davidson and Owen Edwards (Photo: GUW)

2016 Ireland 2016 ENC Team Results

Ireland European Nations Cup 2016

Ireland – l-r Stuart Grehan, Alex Gleeson, Jack Hume and Dermot McElroy (Photo: GUI)

2015 England
2014 Scotland
2013 England
2012 France
2011 England
2010 England
2009 England
2008 Scotland
2007 Denmark

Past Sherry Cup Team Winners (started 1998)

2006 Spain
2005 Spain
2004 England
2003 England
2002 Wales
2001 England
2000 England
1999 Germany
1998 Spain

Individual Competition

2022 Jaime MONTOJO (ESP) 2022 ENC Men’s Individual Result

Montojo won the Individual competition beating teammate Luis Masaveu in a play-off after both finished on 288 (Ev).

Jaime Montojo (Photo: RFE Golf)

This year it was the turn of Denmark’s Hamish BROWN (+2) to grasp defeat from the jaws of victory at Sotogrande – almost an annual occurrence. With a five shot lead and six holes to play he bogeyed five of his remaining holes to finish on +2 and in 3rd place.

Sam BAIRSTOW (ENG) was GB&I’s leading player in the competition, finishing in 5th on +6.

James ASHFIELD (WAL) +10 was 7th, Olly HUGGINS (ENG) +14 tied 10th, Rob MORAN (IRL) +15 13th, Liam NOLAN (IRL) +18 tied 16th and Matt ROBERTS (WAL) and Lewis IRVINE (SCO) +18 both tied 16th.

Leading Individual Results (Graphic: RCG Sotogrande / Golfbox)

2021 Cancelled
2020 Cancelled

2019 Tom Sloman (England) 2019 ENC Individual Results

Tom Sloman (Photos: @Golfing4Life_)

2018 Todd Clements (England) 2018 ENC Individual Results

Todd secured the Individual title with rounds of 69 73 71 and 70 for a 283 total (-5).

2017 Jack Davidson (Wales) 2017 ENC Individual Results

2016 Jack Hume (Ireland) 2016 ENC Individual Results

Rory McIlroy (Photo: RCG Sotogrande)

Past Sherry Cup Individual Winners

Sergio Gracia (Photo: RCG Sotogrande)

1996 Alvaro Salto (Spain)
1995 José María Zamora (Spain)
1994 Francisco Cea (Spain)
1993 Francisco Valera (Spain)
1992 Frederic Cupillar (France)
1991 Padraig Harrington (Ireland)
1990 Alvaro Prat (Spain)
1989 Diego Borrego (Spain)
1988 Yago Beamonte (Spain)
1987 Yago Beamonte (Spain)
1986 Borja Queipo de Llano (Spain)
1985 José L. Padila (Spain)
1984 John Marks (England)
1983 José L. de Bernardo (Spain)
1982 Borja Queipo de Llano (Spain)
1981 Veit Pagel (Germany)
1980 Jesús López (Spain)
1979 Veit Pagel (Germany)
1978 José L. de Bernardo (Spain)
1977 F. Jiménez (Spain)
1976 Alberto Croze (Italy)
1975 Veit Pagel (Germany)
1974 Veit Pagel (Germany)
1973 Alberto Croze (Italy)
1972 E. de la Riva and J. Gancedo (Spain)
1971 Alberto Croze (Italy)
1970 Henric Adam (England)

ME.

World Amateur Team Championship – 2022 Preview & Results

Posted on 22/08/2022 by Golf Bible

3rd September 2022

ITALY won the 32nd World Amateur Team Championship (WATC), for the Eisenhower Trophy, in France. 2022 was the first time that Italy had won a medal, let alone gold, at the WATC.

Team Italy (Photo: IGF / USGA / Steve Gibbons)

Round 4

The leading teams, which included ENGLAND, IRELAND, SCOTLAND and WALES, all played their final rounds at Le Golf National.

ITALY produced a 9-under par final round to move past overnight leaders SWEDEN who could only post a 7-under score. Marco FLORIOLI (-6) and Pietro BOVARI (-3) contributed the two scores that took Italy to the title. European Amateur champion Filippo CELLI, the third member of the Italian team, shot a non-counting 70 in Round 4. ITALY finished on an impressive 541 -31 total with the Swede’s, whose Women’s team won their WATC last week, missing out on a rare double by 1-shot.

USA finished 3rd on -27, NORWAY -25 4th and SPAIN -23 5th.

Early Championship leaders JAPAN perhaps deserved more than their 7th place finish but they paid the price for a flattering finish.

WALES (-17), tied 8th, will be delighted to finish in the top 10 and as the leading home nation team. It was the Principality’s best result at the WATC since they came in fourth in 2006 with a team that consisted of Nigel Edwards, Rhys Davies and Llewellyn Matthews.

ENGLAND (-14) 14th, IRELAND (-8) tied 19th and SCOTLAND (+2) 33rd all finished lower than they would have hoped when they arrived in Paris at the beginning of the week.

Team Results (Graphic: IGF / Golf Genius)

Tobias JONSSON (SWE) shot a final round 66 at Le Golf National to secure Low Individual honours with a 269 -17 total.

Tobias Jonsson (Photo: IGF / USGA / Steve Gibbons)

Taga SEMIKAWA (JAP), who had led from the opening day and started Round 4 with a 5-shot lead, sadly collapsed to a disappointing 73 to finish second on -16.

Austin GREASER (USA) completed a consistent championship with a 67 to finish 3rd on 271 -15.

Archie DAVIES (WAL) had the best Individual score by a home nation player, finishing tied 9th with a 274 -12 result.

Looking at the our ther leading home nation players Mark POWER (IRL) & Sam BAIRSTOW (ENG) -6 finished tied 25th, John GOUGH (ENG) -4 tied 31st, James ASHFIELD (WAL) -2 tied 40th and Calum SCOTT (SCO) & Luke HARRIES (WAL) Ev tied 46th.

Individual Results (Graphic: IGF / Golf Genius)

Click here to view the – Men’s WATC Team Results

Click here to view the – Men’s WATC Individual Results

ME.

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2nd September 2022

Round 3

The leading teams all played their third rounds at Golf de Saint-Nom-la-Brèteche.

SWEDEN matched JAPAN‘s opening day 130 -14 salvo at Saint-Nom-la-Brèteche to snatch the 54-hole lead at the World Amateur Team Championship, finishing on 407 -23.

The Swede’s now have a narrow one shot lead over ITALY, JAPAN and USA heading into the final day. FRANCE -21, SPAIN -19 and NORWAY -18 are also still well in the fight for the Eisenhower Trophy.

WALES (-15) continued their strong performance to stay in the top ten. ENGLAND (-9) are 16th, IRELAND (+1) tied 27th and SCOTLAND (Ev) tied 30th.

Round 3 Team Leaderboard (Graphic: IGF / Golf Genius)

Taga SEMIKAWA (JAP) 197 -18 will take a 5-shot lead over Filippo CELLI (ITA) into the final round after they recorded 69 and 70 respectively at Saint-Nom-la-Brèteche on Day 3.

Tobias JONSSON (SWE) produced the day’s low round with a 64 (-8) which included an eagle and eight birdies. Teammate Ludvig ABERG (SWE) also contributed a 66 (-6) to drive the Swede’s to the top of the leaderboard.

Archie DAVIES (WAL) is tied 3rd alongside Johnson on 203 -12 after he added a solid 69 to his tally

Looking at the other leading home nation players Sam BAIRSTOW (ENG) -5 finished Round 3 tied 33rd, Mark POWER (IRL) -2 tied 36th, Calum SCOTT (SCO) & Luke HARRIES (WAL) -1 tied 45th and James ASHFIELD (WAL) & John GOUGH (ENG) Ev tied 52nd.

Round 3 Individual Leaderboard (Graphic: IGF / Golf Genius)

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1st September 2022

Round 2

JAPAN continued to enjoy their trip to France posting a strong round at Le Golf National on Day 2 of the Eisenhower Trophy. Their 264 (-22) 36-hole score sees them take a 5-shot lead into the third round.

ITALY moved up to 2nd place after an impressive 134 -10 score at Golf de Saint-Nom-la-Brèteche.

FRANCE -16, USA -15 and NORWAY & SPAIN -13 are the countries battling to stay in touch with the leaders.

WALES (-10), tied 7th, jumped to the top of the home nation rankings after posting an excellent 137 -7 score at Golf de Saint-Nom-la-Brèteche.

It was a disappointing over par day for the remainder of our teams. ENGLAND (-5), who were playing at Saint-Nom-la-Brèteche today, are now tied 17th, IRELAND (+1) tied 29th and SCOTLAND (+4) tied 35th. The Irish and Scots were at Le Golf National for their second rounds.

27 of the 71 teams finished Day 2 under par.

Round 2 Team Leaderboard (Graphic: IGF / Golf Genius)

Taiga SEMIKAWA (JAP) 128 -15 extended his lead in the individual standings to 4-shots after a 65 -6 at Le Golf National.

European Amateur champion Filippo CELLI (ITA) 132 -11 moved into a tie for 2nd place with a 65 (-7) at Saint-Nom-la-Brèteche, finishing his round eagle-birdie.

David PUIG (ESP) also remains in 2nd place after a 66 (-5) at Le Golf National.

Tom VAILLANT (FRA) and Archie DAVIES (WAL) 134 -9 are tied 4th after recording a 65 and 69 respectively at Saint-Nom-la-Brèteche.

Adrien DUMONT DE CHASSART (BEL) produced the round of the day, a 63 at Saint-Nom-la-Brèteche, matching Semikawa’s effort in Round 1

Sam BAIRSTOW (ENG) and John GOUGH (ENG) 141 -2 are tied 30th and Mark POWER (IRL), Luke HARRIES (WAL) and Calum SCOTT (SCO) 141 -1 are tied 42nd with 36-holes still to play.

Round 2 Individual Leaderboard (Graphic: IGF / Golf Genius)

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31st August 2022

Round 1

JAPAN made a sparkling start to the 2022 Eisenhower Trophy with a barely believable 130 (-14) score around Golf de Saint-Nom-la-Brèteche’s Red Course. It was the second lowest opening round in the WATC since USA’s 128 in Japan in 2014.

SPAIN are second after recording a 136 (-8) score at the same venue.

AUSTRIA, FRANCE, GERMANY, ITALY, SWEDEN and SWITZERLAND 135 (-7) are all tied 3rd. France, Germany and Italy all started their Championship’s at Le Golf National and therefore led the scoring at this venue on Day 1.

ENGLAND (-6) are tied 9th and WALES (-3) tied 14th, after both played their opening rounds at Le Golf National. IRELAND and SCOTLAND (both -2) are tied 20th after starting out at nearby Golf de Saint-Nom-la-Brèteche.

The ideal playing conditions enabled 26 of the 71 teams to finish Day 1 under par.

Round 1 Team Leaderboard (Graphic: IGF / Golf Genius)

Taiga SEMIKAWA (JAP) 63 -9 leads Jonas BAUMGARTNER (GER) 65 -6, Archie DAVIES (WAL) 65 -6, David PUIG (ESP) 66 -6 and Cedric GUGLER (SUI) 66 -6 in the Individual standings. Semikawa’s score was the joint lowest in the history of the WATC.

With Kohei OKADA (JAP) 67 -5, tied 6th, also posting a strong score it is no wonder Japan are leading the way by 6-shots.

Mark POWER (IRL) 69 -3, Sam BAIRSTOW (ENG) and John GOUGH (ENG), both 68 -3, all tied 12th, were the best of the home nation players in Round 1. Scotland’s Calum SCOTT 70 -2 was one shot further back in tied 28th.

Round 1 Individual Leaderboard (Graphic: IGF / Golf Genius)

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22nd August 2022

The 32nd Men’s World Amateur Team Championship (WATC), played for the Eisenhower Trophy, starts on Wednesday 31st August in Paris, France.

The WATC is a biennial international amateur golf competition run by the International Golf Federation (IGF), formerly known as the World Amateur Golf Council.

The IGF comprises 151 national governing bodies of golf in 146 countries and 22 international professional tours. It is recognised by the International Olympic Committee as the body responsible for golf and as such, in addition to the Men’s and Women’s WATC’s it also organises the golf competitions in both the Olympics and Youth Olympics.

The competition has in recent years moved by rotation around the world taking in Asia-Pacific, the Americas and Europe-Africa in turn. It will be played in the Middle East for the first time in 2023.

The competition was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was therefore last played at Carton House, Ireland in September 2018.

I will be updating this article with reports and results information during the Championship.

Venue

The WATC will be played on the Albatross Course at Le Golf National and on the Red Course at Golf de Saint-Nom-la-Brèteche.

La Golf National is well known having staged the 2018 Ryder Cup and numerous French Open Championships since 1991.

The course, which is man made with undulating fairways, fast greens and numerous water hazards, will play to 6,991 yards and a par of 71. It enjoys a slope of 155.

The 15th and 18th Greens, La Golf National (Photo: Steve Carr / Le Golf National)

Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche is an exclusive golf club which sits in rolling countryside in La Tuilerie and enjoys an 18th century manor house for a clubhouse.

The Club has hosted the Canada Cup in 1963, the French Open Championship twice and the prestigious Tophée Lancôme for 34 years on the European Tour.

The Red Course will play to 6,821 yards and a par of 72 during the Championship. It has a slope of 142.

The 1st Tees and Clubhouse, Golf de Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche

Competition Format

71 teams are competing in the 2022 WATC.

The three players from each team play 72 holes of stroke play over four days. The two lowest rounds recorded on each day count towards the team’s total score.

The leading 36 teams after 36 holes will play their third round at Golf de Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche and their final round at Le Golf National. The other teams will do the reverse.

Players in the leading three teams receive gold, silver and bronze medals.

Whilst individual results are reported and the player with the lowest score is recognised at the closing ceremony there is no prize awarded for the honour.

GB&I Competitors

Each of the home nations will be represented with the following players having been selected (SPWAR as at 25th August): –

ENGLAND
Sam BAIRSTOW (#7), Arron EDWARDS-HILL (#38) and John GOUGH (#22)

Team England (Photo: IGF / USGA / Steve Gibbons)

IRELAND
Matthew MCCLEAN (#57), Robert MORAN (#62) and Mark POWER (#175)

Team Ireland (Photo: IGF / USGA / Steve Gibbons)

SCOTLAND
Callum BRUCE (#188), Rory FRANSSEN (#106) and Calum SCOTT (#83)

Team Scotland (Photo: IGF / USGA / Steve Gibbons)

WALES
James ASHFIELD (#159), Archie DAVIES (#85) and Luke HARRIES (#166)

Team Wales (Photo: IGF / USGA / Steve Gibbons)

Good luck to all of the home nation teams competing in France this week.

In addition to England and Ireland, currently our strongest nations, I expect the following teams to feature near the top of the leaderboard: –

AUSTRALIA – Harrison Crowe (#71), Hayden Hopewell (#48), Connor McKinney (#29)

FRANCE – Martin Couvre (#107), Julian Sale (#23), Tom Vaillant (#30)

ITALY – Pietro Bovari (#177), Filippo Celli (#41), Marco Florioli (#87)

JAPAN – Keita Nakajima (#31), Kohei Okada (#407), Taiga Semikawa (#100)

SOUTH AFRICA – Christo Lamprecht (#45), Christiaan Maas (#11), Aldrich Potgieter (#46)

SPAIN – Jose Ballester (#66), Luis Masaveu (#117), David Puig (N/R)

SWEDEN – Tobias Jonsson (#173), Adam Wallin (#200), Ludvig Aberg (#1)

USA – Austen Greaser (#17), Gordon Sargent (#6), Michael Thorbjornsen (#2)

Additional Information

Click here to view the – Men’s WATC Team Results

Click here to view the – Men’s WATC Individual Results

Click here to view the – Men’s WATC Tee Times

Click here to view the – Official IGF World Amateur Team Championships Webpage

Future WATC Events

33rd – 25th-28th October 2023 – Jumeirah Golf Estates (Fire Course), Dubai, United Arab Emirates

34th – 2025 – Singapore

35th – 2027 – Morocco

2023 will be the first time the event has been staged in the Middle East and will see it move to odd years to avoid a clash with the Summer Olympic Games.

Due to the escalating costs of staging the WATC it will in all future years be played at a single course with the field reduced to a minimum of 36 teams.

It is expected a new qualifying competition for the smaller and newer golfing nations will be established ahead of this Championship.

2018 WATC

DENMARK won the Men’s World Amateur Team Championship at Carton House in Ireland with a record 541 (-39) team score. The Danish team was made up of John Axelsen, Nicolai Hojgaard and Rasmus Hojgaard. This was Denmark’s first victory in the Championship. Their previous best result was second place in Argentina in 2010.

Denmark With The Eisenhower Trophy (Photo: International Golf Federation)

The UNITED STATES finished 2nd paying the penalty for a poor first day. In the final analysis they found themselves coming up 1-shot short on 542 (-38).

SPAIN were third on 544 (-36) two shots further back.

The Leading Final Team Results (Graphic: IGF)

ENGLAND were the best of the home nations finishing 8th on 549 (-31).

IRELAND finished tied 10th on 553 (-27), SCOTLAND tied 12th on 554 (-26) and WALES tied 18th on 560 (-20).

Click here to view the full – 2018 Eisenhower Trophy Team Scores

Spain’s Alejandro DEL RAY was the low individual with a superb -23 final score, beating Japan’s Takumi KANAYA by 1-shot.

Robin DAWSON and Gian-Marco PETROZZI (-14) both finished tied 13th to share low GB&I honours. Matthew JORDAN, Sandy SCOTT and Ryan LUMSDEN (-12) were a couple of shots further back.

The Leading Final Individual Team Results (Graphic: IGF)

Click here to view the – 2018 Eisenhower Trophy Individual Scores

2016 WATC

AUSTRALIA won the 2016 World Amateur Team Championship in Mayakoba, Mexico by a massive 19-shots. The team of Cameron DAVIS, Harrison ENDYCOTT and Curtis LUCK equalled the 72 hole scoring record of 534 (-38). It was the fourth time Australia had won the Eisenhower Trophy, following victories in 1958, 1966 and 1996.

Australia’ Cameron DAVIS (269 / -17) recorded the Championship’s lowest individual score. His compatriot Curtis LUCK (271 / -15) finished second, helped in no small part by a superb 63 (-9) in the third round.

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Australia – Harrison Endycott, Cameron Davis, Curtis Luck, Matt Cutler (Photo: Golf Australia)

2014 WATC

The United States of America, represented by Bryson DECHAMBEAU, Beau HOSSLER and Denny MCCARTHY won the 2014 Eisenhower Trophy in Karuizawa, Japan. The U.S. team set a new record score of 534 (-38).

In 2014 Spain’s Jon RAHM won the Individual with a record breaking 263 (-23) total.

2014 Eisenhower Trophy

U.S.A. – Bryson DeChambeau, Denny McCarthy, Jim Hyler (c) and Beau Hossler (Photo: USGA / Steven Gibbons)

Historic Results

GREAT BRITAIN & IRELAND (GB&I) have won the Eisenhower Trophy four times but only SCOTLAND have won it in their own right since each of the home nations started to compete separately.

Here is the full list of historic results: –

Screenshot 2022-08-22 at 17.50.10

ME.

R&A Men’s Home Internationals – 2022 Preview & Results

Posted on 01/08/2022 by Golf Bible

5th August 2022

England won the inaugural R&A Trophy for the combined Women’s and Men’s Home Internationals match played at Ballyliffin G.C. in Ireland.

England won the Men’s Raymond Trophy and Ireland the Women’s International Shield.

England’s Men’s Team (Photo: England Golf)

Click here to view the full – R&A Womens & Mens Home Internationals Results

Here are my Men’s Individual Performance tables confirming that England’s Arron EDWARDS-HILL was the most successful player in the 2022 Raymond Trophy contest.

Screenshot 2022-08-05 at 20.55.04

Screenshot 2022-08-05 at 20.41.35

Day 3 Matches

Scotland 7.5 v. Wales 4.5

Ireland 5.5 v. England 6.5

Having lost the morning Foursomes series 3-1 England fought back to win the afternoon Singles 5.5-2.5 to take an all-important narrow victory over Ireland. It was a stunning comeback for the English who looked out of it after 9 holes but important ties for Arron Edwards-Hill, Sam Bairstow & John Gough at the top of the order and wins for Olly Huggins, Josh Berry, Harley Smith and Jack Bigham down the home stretch saw them steal the trophy from the hosts.

Here’s the Men’s Home Internationals Results Table after the Round 3 matches.

Screenshot 2022-08-05 at 20.41.48

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4th August 2022

Day 2 Matches

England 7.5 – Scotland 4.5

Wales 3.0 – Ireland 9.0

Whilst both teams won on Day 2 of the Men’s Home Internationals Ireland moved ahead of England in the standings by virtue of their larger winning margin against Wales.

Here’s the Men’s Home Internationals Table after the Round 2 matches.

Screenshot 2022-08-05 at 10.53.15

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3rd August 2022

Day 1 Matches

England 9.0 – Wales 3.0

Scotland 3.0 – Ireland 9.0

England and Ireland have both made strong starts to the Men’s Home Internationals, both winning their opening day matches 9-3 against Wales and Scotland respectively.

Here’s the Men’s Home Internationals Table after the Round 1 matches.

Screenshot 2022-08-05 at 10.46.50

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2nd August 2022

The R&A and four Golf Unions have this year decided to bring together the mens and womens home internationals.

Therefore the R&A Womens and Mens Home Internationals will be played at Ballyliffin Golf Club in County Donegal, Ireland on 3rd-5th August 2022.

The R&A first introduced this type of change in August last year when for the first time they combined both the Boys’ and Girls’ Home Internationals and Senior Men’s and Women’s Home Internationals at Woodhall Spa.

I am not supportive of these changes, particularly to the longstanding Men’s and Women’s events. This is because: –

1) I appreciate the history and tradition that both have built up over many years.

2) The impact on competitiveness of moving to a larger combined team of 16 players for the main prize, albeit I accept there are pros and cons to this.

3) It discriminates against men by reducing the number of male players competing from 11 to 9 and the number of foursomes (5 to 4) and singles (10 to 8) they play in the event.

Despite requesting help in understanding this change on Twitter no one has to date provided me with a single positive reason for this move.

To be clear I am all for shared venues, which may add to the overall spectacle, but remain unconvinced about the merits of combined and mixed events. In my opinion the separate mens and womens competitions should have remained the priority and if it was felt a combined trophy was necessary this should have been the secondary add-on.

Ballyliffin Golf Club (Photo: Ballyliffin Golf Club)

Format Change

In the new combined event England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales will have 16 person amateur teams consisting of 9 men and 7 women. The number of women competing is unchanged but men on each side have been reduced by two.

Each country will play every other team over the three competition days.

Matches will consist of 7 foursomes (4 mens and 3 womens) and 14 singles (8 mens and 6 womens) played over 18 holes. Each match will start with a mens game and alternate with a womens game thereafter. When compared with the previous separate events the womens format is unchanged but the mens has been reduced by 1 foursomes and 2 singles.

One point will be awarded for a win in each foursomes and singles with a half point for a tied match. Each team will be awarded one match point for winning an overall match and a half point for a tie.

The final team positions will be determined according to the highest number of match points earned. Ties will be broken by reviewing the total number of individual womens and mens combined game points.

The winning team will be awarded a new prize, The R&A Trophy.

Whilst now appearing to be of secondary importance The Raymond Trophy and International Shield will still be awarded to the countries which respectively gain the most match points in the men’s and women’s separate series of matches.

The Raymond Trophy

The men’s home internationals were first played in 1932 and this year’s ‘staging’ will be the 81st playing of this prestigious event.

Since 1952 the winning team has received The Raymond Trophy.

In the 80 competitions played to date England have won 38, Scotland 21, Ireland 13 and Wales 1. The remaining 7 were tied before it was decided that ties would be resolved by using game points.

The Raymond Trophy (Photo: Ayrshire Golf Blog)

2022 Men’s Players

The four national golf unions have selected the following male players to represent their countries this year.

ENGLAND
Sam BAIRSTOW – Hallowes
Josh BERRY – Doncaster
Jack BIGHAM – Harpenden
Arron EDWARDS-HILL – Chelmsford
John GOUGH – Stoke Park
Olly HUGGINS – Frilford Heath
Ben QUINNEY – Kings Hill
Harley SMITH – The Rayleigh Club
Tyler WEAVER – Bury St. Edmunds

IRELAND
Robert BRAZILL – Naas
Colm CAMPBELL – Warrenpoint
Hugh FOLEY – Royal Dublin
Matt MCCLEAN – Malone
Robert MORAN – Castle
Liam NOLAN – Galway
Peter O’KEEFFE – Douglas
Mark POWER – Kilkenny
Caolan RAFFERTY – Dundalk

SCOTLAND
Callum BRUCE – Duff House Royal
Angus CARRICK – Cragielaw
Matthew CLARK – Renfrewshire
Andrew DAVIDSON – Crail
Rory FRANSSEN – Auchterarder
Connor GRAHAM – Blairgowrie
Gregor GRAHAM – Blairgowrie
Lewis IRVINE – Kirkhill
Calum SCOTT – Nairn

WALES
Tomi BOWEN – Welshpool
Sean DAVID – Pyle & Kenfig
Alex JAMES – Royal Lytham & St. Anneshuddlan
Connor JONES – Aberdovey
Tom MATTHEWS – Aldersley Green
Craig MELDING – Neath
Paddy MULLINS – Whitchurch
James NASH – Ormskirk
Matt ROBERTS – Royal Porthcawl

Wales’ three leading players James Ashfield, Archie Davies and Luke Harries are all playing at The Celtic Manor Resort in the Cazoo Open on the DP World Tour this week.

Venue – Ballyliffin Golf Club

Ballyliffin is Ireland’s most northerly golf club and is located near Inishowen in County Donegal.

It enjoys two superb links courses, The Old Links and Glashedy Links, and is now generally accepted as being one of the best golf resorts in Europe.

The Old Links course is being used this week. The men’s championship course is going to play at 6,891 yards with a par of 71, there being only one par 5 on the front nine.

Ballyliffin Golf Club (Photo: Ballyliffin Golf Club)

2022 Weather Forecast (as at 2nd August 2022)

The latest forecast is satisfactory for the three competition days: –

Wed. 3rd Aug. – Light Rain / Wind 17mph W / Temp. Min 11º, Max 16º
Thurs. 4th Aug. – Showers / Wind 16 mph NW / Temp. Min 11º, Max 15º
Fri. 5th Aug. – Light Cloud / Wind 15mph NW / Temp. Min 12º, Max 17º

2021 R&A Men’s Home Internationals

Ireland won the 2021 R&A Men’s Home Internationals after a thrilling contest at Hankley Common G.C. which went down to the final putt of the competition.

Ireland With The Raymond Trophy (Photo: Luke Walker / Getty Images / The R&A)

Scotland who secured 27.5 game points, compared with Ireland’s 27, finished second, England a disappointing 3rd and Wales 4th.

Final Table / Match Points (Graphics: The R&A / Golfbox)

England won the Seniors, Girls and Boys and Women’s Home Internationals in 2021 but were found wanting in the Men’s event. No one would have predicted before play started that they would be comfortably beaten in both Singles series against Scotland (8-2) and Ireland (6.5-3.5) and it was these two series performances that ultimately cost them.

Match Overview (Graphics: The R&A / Golfbox)

Click here to view the full – 2021 R&A Men’s Home Internationals Results

Robert MORAN (IRL), Andrew NI (SCO), John GOUGH (ENG) and Luke HARRIES & Ben CHAMBERLAIN (WAL) were the leading players for the four nations at Hankley Common.

Historic Results

Click here to view all of the – Men’s Home Internationals Historic Results

ME.

European Men’s Amateur Team Championship – 2022 Preview & Results

Posted on 03/07/2022 by Golf Bible

9th July 2022

Match Play – Day 3

Here is my assessment of the Individual contributions of each home nation player this week.

I picked Sam BAIRSTOW (ENG), Liam NOLAN (IRL), James ASHFIELD (WAL) and Calum SCOTT (SCO) has my star men.

Screenshot 2022-07-10 at 07.50.57

Flight A – Finals

Spain (1) beat Denmark (5) 4.5-2.5 to win the European Men’s Amateur Team Championship at Royal St. George’s G.C. in Kent.

Spain (Photo: RFE Golf)

Denmark (5) beat England (3) 5-2 to secure 3rd place with the hosts having to settle for 4th.

Denmark v. England – Flight A Result (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

Finally, Ireland defeated Italy 3-2 to take 5th place.

Ireland v. Italy – Flight A Result (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

Click here to view the – Flight A Match Play Scores

Flight B

Wales (12) beat Belgium (15) 4-1 to finish in 13th place in the Championship. James ASHFIELD‘s win in the final Single’s game over Adrien Dumont De Chassart, Belgium’s highest ranked player, was the highlight.

Wales v. Belgium – Flight B Result (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

Click here to view the – Flight B Match Play Results

Flight C

Scotland (17) beat Czech Republic (18) 3-2 in the final match of the three team ’round robin’ event to secure 17th place in the Championship.

However, it was a hollow victory as Czech Republic, Portugal and Scotland were all relegated to Division 2 for next year’s Championship following the Stroke Play Qualifying.

Scotland v. Czech Republic – Flight C Result (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

Click here to view the – Flight C Match Play Results

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8th July 2022

Match Play – Day 2

Flight A – Semi-Finals

Sweden (7) beat England (2) 4-3 to reach the final of the European Men’s Amateur Team Championship where they will face Denmark.

The result was harsh on Sam BAIRSTOW who continued his unbeaten winning record in the event with another good day at Royal St. George’s G.C.

England v. Sweden – Semi-Final Result (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

Ireland (8) overcame Germany (4) 3-2 to ensure they can finish no lower than 6th place. Liam NOLAN enjoyed another good win for the Irish.

Ireland v. Germany – Flight A Result (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

Flight B

Wales (12) beat Iceland (16) 3-2 with their three leading players all delivering solid Singles wins.

Iceland v. Wales – Flight B Result (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

Flight C

Scotland (17) tied with Portugal (19), who had been beaten by Czech Republic on Thursday.

Scotland v. Portugal – Flight C Result (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

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7th July 2022

Match Play – Day 1

Flight A – Quarter Finals

England (2) overcame Netherlands (7) by 5.5-1.5.

Whilst JOHN GOUGH (ENG) won both of his games the highlight of a strong overall performance was Sam BAIRSTOW‘s 8&6 thrashing in the Singles of the recently crowned European Amateur champion Filippo CELLI.

England v. Italy – Quarter Final Results (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

Ireland (8) lost their Quarter Final to Spain (1) by 4-3 in a tight game which on another day could have gone the other way.

Liam NOLAN starred for the Irish, partnering Mark POWER to success in the opening Foursomes before winning his afternoon Singles against Jose BALLESTER.

Spain v. Ireland Quarter Final Results (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

Flight B

Wales (12) will be disappointed to have lost to Estonia (13) in their opening match of Flight B.

Wales v. Estonia – Flight B Result (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

Flight C

Scotland (17) find themselves in a Round Robin competition with Czech Republic (18) and Portugal (19) Scotland will have today off before playing Portugal tomorrow and Czech Republic on Saturday.

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6th July 2022

Stroke Play Qualifying – Round 2

Spain secured the top seeding for the Flight A Match Play competition with a 693 (-7) total.

England (-5) finished 2nd and Ireland (+4) 8th to also make the all-important Flight A which will determine the medalists later this week. The Irish improved their team score by 28 shots in Round 2 to squeeze into the main show after all had seemed lost after their opening effort.

Wales (+15) were 12th so will contest the Flight B competition.

Scotland (+26) were a hugely disappointing 17th, beaten by both Estonia and Iceland, and will be relegated to Division 2 for the 2023 competition.

Round 2 Team Results (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

Julien SALE (FRA), who impressed in the recent France v. England International Match, shot two rounds of 67 to head the Individual standings on -6.

Arron EDWARDS-HILL (ENG) -4 was the leading GB&I player over the 36 holes finishing in 5th place.

Round 2 Individual Results – Top 30 (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

Click here to view the Stroke Play Qualifying leaderboards – Team and Individual

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5th July 2022

Stroke Play Qualifying – Round 1

Denmark lead the Stroke Play Qualifying competition with a 344 (-6) total.

England 350 (Ev) are 4th, Wales 361 (+11) 12th, Scotland 363 (+13) 15th and Ireland 366 (+16) 18th.

Round 1 Team Leaderboard (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

Arron EDWARDS-HILL (ENG) was one of nine players to contribute a 67 (-3) in Round 1 for their respective teams.

James ASHFIELD (WAL) 68 (-2), Calum SCOTT (SCO) 69 (-1) and Paddy MULLINS (WAL), Sam BAIRSTOW (ENG) & Matt ROBERTS (WAL) all 70 (Ev) also impressed on Day 1.

Round 1 Individual Leaderboard – Top 30 (Graphic: EGA / Golfbox)

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3rd July 2022

The 39th European Men’s Amateur Team Championship will be played between Tuesday 5th and Saturday 9th July 2022 at Royal St. George’s G.C. in Kent, England.

Whilst the 2020 and 2021 Championships took place a number of teams chose not to particpate due to the COVID-19 pandemic. England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales will all be competing this week.

Denmark are the defending champions having beaten France in last year’s final at PGA Catalunya Resort in Spain.

Denmark (Photo: European Golf Association)

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 page throughout the competition and score links to all of the other Championships on the Results page of this website and on Twitter.

2022 Teams

19 national teams of 6 players will contest the 2022 European Men’s Amateur Team Championship.

This is three more than normal as no teams were relegated in 2020 or 2021 due to the COVID-19 disruption and Finland, the Czech Republic, and Estonia all earned promotion from Division 2 in 2021.

The teams competing are Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Wales.

Based on their total 6-man SPWARs England (519), France (553), Denmark (732), Ireland (759), Spain (1,015), Scotland (1,220), Sweden (1,253) and Netherlands (1,488) would appear to be the strongest teams likely to challenge for the medals.

The 2022 home nation teams are made up of the following players: –

ENGLAND – Sam BAIRSTOW, Jack BIGHAM, Barclay BROWN, Arron EDWARDS-HILL, John GOUGH, Olly HUGGINS

England (Photo: European Golf Association)

IRELAND – Hugh FOLEY, Matthew MCCLEAN, Robert MORAN, Liam NOLAN, Mark POWER, Caolan RAFFERTY

Ireland (Photo: European Golf Association)

SCOTLAND – Callum BRUCE, Angus CARRICK, Rory FRANSSEN, Connor GRAHAM, Lewis IRVINE, Calum SCOTT

Scotland (Photo: European Golf Association)

WALES – James ASHFIELD, Archie DAVIES, Luke HARRIES, Alex JAMES, Paddy MULLINS, Matt ROBERTS

Wales (Photo: European Golf Association)

Format / Schedule

The Championship is run by the European Golf Association, this year in partnership with England Golf.

Two rounds of stroke play qualifying are completed on the first two days, with the lowest five scores from each team counting. Any ties will be broken by using the two non-counting scores, the lowest being given precedence.

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 next eight competing in a second flight and the final three playing a Flight C round robin competition.

The teams in Flight A play 2 foursomes and 5 singles whilst losing teams and those in Flights B and C 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 individual games.

The teams finishing 14th to 19th in the match play stage will be relegated to the Division 2 Championship for 2023.

Royal St. George’s G.C., England

Royal St. George’s was founded in 1887 and is a renowned links course situated on the south east coast of England.

Royal St. George’s 1st Tee and Clubhouse

The club has hosted 15 Open Championships and 13 Amateur Championships as well as the Walker Cup, twice, and a Curtis Cup.

This is the second time the European Men’s Amateur Team Championship has been staged here. In 1965 Ireland beat Scotland in the final.

The course plays to 7,204 yards with a par of 70 and a course rating of 138.

Royal St. George’s Course Map

Weather Forecast

This week’s weather forecast for Sandwich looks very good with near perfect playing conditions expected throughout the week.

Tue 5th July – Sunny Intervals. Wind 9 mph NW. Temp. Min. 13°C / Max. 21°C.
Wed 6th July – Sunny Intervals. Wind 11 mph W. Temp. Min. 14°C / Max. 22°C.
Thur 7th July – Sunny Intervals. Wind 10 mph N. Temp. Min. 13°C / Max. 21°C.
Fri 8th July – Sunny Intervals. Wind 9 mph W. Temp. Min. 14°C / Max. 24°C.
Sat 9th July – Sunny Intervals. Wind 11 mph N. Temp. Min. 14°C / Max. 23°C.

Website Links – Scores / Information

Full Player List

Stroke Play Qualifying Leaderboard – Team and Individual

Match Play Draw / Results – Flight A, Flight B and Flight C

For more event information – European Golf Association Website

2021 European Men’s Amateur Team Championship

Denmark beat France 5.5-1.5 at PGA Catalunya Resort in Spain in the 2021 Final.

Ireland were the only home nation to participate in a field of 13 countries last year. They disappointingly qualified in last place in the stroke play competition, ultimately finishing 10th after the match play stage.

Match Play Draw / Scores – Flight A
Match Play Draw / Scores – Flight B

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 3 and Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy and Wales once each.

Click here to view the full list of – European Men’s Amateur Team Championship Past Winners

ME.

France v. England Men’s International Match – 2022 Preview & Results

Posted on 12/05/2022 by Golf Bible

15th May 2022

England saved the best till last at Golf de Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche. A strong final afternoon Singles performance helped them secure a hard earned 13.5-10.5 victory over a competitive French side in their 2022 Men’s International Match.

Whilst France won both Foursomes (with five wins and one half out of eight games) England got the better of the more important Singles sessions and that proved to be the deciding factor in the outcome.

England have now won 31 of the 36 matches played.

The Winning England Team (Photo: England Golf)

Click here to view the full results from the – France v. England International Match

French pair Julien Sale and Oihan Guillamoundeguy were the star performers in the match delivering the two only unbeaten records.

John Gough, Arron Edwards-Hill, Jack Bigham and Sam Bairstow crucially won both of their Singles for the English.

Screenshot 2022-05-16 at 09.00.30

Day 2 Singles

John Gough took control of his match with two birdies on the 5th and 7th holes. Despite a late fightback from Adam Bresnu an eagle on the par 5 17th enabled Gough to secure an agenda setting 2&1 win for the English.

In game 2 Sam Bairstow was at his imperious best against Tom Vaillant. Bairstow’s six birdies in the 15 holes played helped him to a 4&3 victory.

Ben Quinney‘s play in the afternoon lacked the consistency necessary to beat Julien Sale who made few mistakes on his way to a 5&3 win. Sale was unbeaten throughout, enhancing his reputation as one of Europe’s best players in the process.

Jack Bigham, who posted a total of four birdies and played well down the stretch when his opponent was threatening a comeback, secured his second Singles win of the contest with a 2 Hole victory over Tom Gueant.

Arron Edwards-Hill wasn’t at his best but did what was required to beat an out of sorts Nathan Legendre. 1 Down with two holes to play Edwards-Hill finished strongly with a birdie and a par to steal a 1 Hole win.

Zach Chegwidden beat Paul Beauvy by 4&3 stringing together a number of pars which again proved to be a recipe for success around the demanding Red Course with its firm greens.

Oihan Guillamoundeguy, who was unbeaten throughout the match and appears to be a young player worthy of note, again got the better of Jack Brooks in the Singles, this time by 3&2.

With four birdies and just one bogey to his name Joe Harvey played very well in the final game to secure a comfortable 4&3 win against Martin Couvre.

Day 2 PM Singles Results (Graphic: FF Golf)

Day 2 Foursomes

France won the Day 2 Foursomes series by 2.5-1.5 to take a one point lead into the final Singles.

Nathan Lengendre & Tom Gueant beat John Gough & Ben Quinney by 2 Holes in the opening encounter. This was a tight game throughout with no more than one hole separating the teams right up until the 17th. An English three putt bogey on the par 5 17th gave the French pair the lead for the first time which they extended when Gough & Quinney picked up on the last when pushing for a half.

The consistent par machine of Tom Vaillant & Martin Couvre beat Jack Bigham & Sam Bairstow who fell away on the back nine with three bogeys in four holes.

The third match was a rollercoaster affair with the French pair of Julien Sale & Oihan Guillamoundeguy parring just 8 of the 18 holes played to ensure it remained tight throughout. Zach Chegwidden & Arron Edwards-Hill took the lead for the first time on the 17th when the French bogeyed. However, the Essex boys disappointingly handed the advantage straight back with a bogey on the home hole.

The final game was an odd affair. Like yesterday Jack Brooks & Joe Harvey again started badly, albeit this time even worse going 3 Down after three holes. Despite being handed the perfect start Paul Beauvy & Adam Bresnu completely capitulated bogeying (or worse) eight of the next ten holes played to hand an easy win to the English.

Day 2 AM Foursomes Results (Graphic: FF Golf)

ME.

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14th May 2022

Day 1 Singles

England got back on track this afternoon winning the Day 1 Singles series 5-3 and losing just two of the eight matches played.

The final Day 1 score is now 6-6 with all to play for tomorrow.

John Gough took control of his match against Nathan Legendre early on after his opponent started with 5 bogeys over the opening six holes and ran out a fairly comfortable 3&2 winner as neither player hit their peak.

Sam Bairstow won the final hole of his game to secure a valuable 1 Hole victory over Tom Gueant. This was a high quality encounter with plenty of birdies made albeit mistakes by both players down the final two holes made for an out of keeping but exciting finish.

The bonus point for England came from the 2021 Boys’ Amateur champion Jack Bigham. 4 Down with 6 holes to play he fought back, helped by four bogeys from the young Frenchman, to secure another 1 Hole win for the visitors.

Adam Bresnu and Ben Quinney and Tom Vaillant and Zach Chegwidden both halved their games. Bresnu won the 17th to regain parity with Quinney whilst, to the cheers of the watching gallery, Vaillant holed from off the 18th green for a winning birdie to secure his half with Chegwidden.

Arron Edwards-Hill beat Martin Couvra by 2&1 which proved to be useful as the English tail enders following him behind succumbed to their french opponents.

Jack Brooks, who led 2Up after 10 holes, was hit by a barrage of birdies on the back nine by 17 year old Oihan Guillamoundeguy ultimately falling by 2&1.

Julien Sale, France’s highest ranked player, appears to have had the measure of Joe Harvey from the start of their game. 4Up after seven holes he delivered a 4&2 win for the home team despite Harvey finding some form on the back nine.

Day 1 PM Singles Results (Graphic: FF Golf)

Day 1 Foursomes

France lead England 3-1 after the opening Foursomes series at Golf de Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche.

Nathan Lengendre & Tom Gueant played steady golf before seeing off a late birdie blitz from Jack Bigham & Sam Bairstow in the opening game. A 2&1 win for the home team.

John Gough & Ben Quinney dovetailed well, impressively delivering a birdie-eagle finish, to take care of Paul Beauvy & Adam Bresnu by 3&1. Whilst always competitive the French pair effectively let the game get away from them around the turn with a double bogey followed by two bogeys on holes 9-11.

With two birdies in the opening four holes Tom Vaillant & Martin Couvre quickly went 3Up on Zach Chegwidden & Arron Edwards-Hill. Despite the English pair regaining parity by the 8th hole mistakes on 9 and 10 left them chasing on the back nine. Despite making three birdies in their pursuit the French were resolute and held on for a 1 Hole victory.

Like their compatriots in game 3 Jack Brooks & Joe Harvey initially found themselves behind – 2 Down after 2 Holes, albeit due to two bogeys – before reeling their opponents back in by the 8th hole. Both pairings made three birdies on the back 9 but the English made two bogeys compared with Julien Sale & Oihan Guillamoundeguy‘s one. With the 18th halved in par 4 the French pair could enjoy their lunches with a 1 Hole victory to their names.

Day 1 AM Foursomes Results (Graphic: FF Golf)

ME.

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12th May 2022

England travel to France this weekend for the 36th Men’s International Match between the two countries.

The last match, which was due to take place in May 2020 at Ganton Golf Club, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2022 match is being played at Golf de Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche which is located 15 miles west of Paris.

The 1st Tees and Clubhouse, Golf de Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche

Format

8 man teams from each country will play 4 foursomes and 8 single matches on both Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th May.

With a total of 24 points to play for the winning team needs to secure 12.5 points to win the match outright. As England won the 2018 match they will also retain the trophy in the event of a 12-12 tie. Having said that I should point out that there has never been a tie in the history of the contest.

The biennial match is normally played on an alternate home and away basis.

Teams

Here are the two eight man teams with each player’s current Scratch Player World Amateur Ranking and World Amateur Golf Ranking in brackets after their name: –

England
Sam Bairstow (31 / 19)
Jack Bigham (298 / 243 )
Jack Brooks (160 / 466)
Zach Chegwidden (197 / 410)
Arron Edwards-Hill (117 / 290)
John Gough (38 / 50)
Joe Harvey (530 / 672)
Ben Quinney * (397 / 321)

Total SPWAR = 1,768 / Total WAGR = 2,471

* Ben replaced Olly Huggins in the original team selection.

Jack Brooks, Joe Harvey, Zach Chegwidden, Arron Edwards-Hill (back l-r), Sam Bairstow, John Gough, Jack Bigham and Ben Quinney (from l-r) (Photo: England Golf)

France
Paul Beauvy (237 / 794)
Adam Bresnu (250 / 1,230)
Martin Couvra (191 / 447)
Tom Gueant (368 / 247)
Oihan Guillamoundeguy (166 / 480)
Nathan Legrandre (450 / 869)
Julien Sale (55 / 114 )
Tom Vaillant (64 / 187)

Total SPWAR = 1,781 / Total WAGR = 4,368

The French men’s squad have been at a training camp at Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche since Monday so should be well prepared in terms of course knowledge and foursomes pairings.

Nevertheless England will start the match as favourites as is normally the case given past results and their greater strength in depth as a golf nation.

Venue

Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche is an exclusive golf club which sits in rolling countryside in La Tuilerie and enjoys an 18th century manor house for a clubhouse.

Golf de Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche

It has two courses, the Red and the Blue or if your prefer ‘le Rouge et le Bleu’, both of which were laid out in the late 1950s by the English architect Fred Hawtree.

This match is being played solely on the Red Course.

A composite par 72 layout, which utilises the 1st hole of the Blue before moving exclusively over to the Red, has often been used for major events. The two nines have also been switched on many occasions so the picturesque downhill par 3 9th hole could be played as an exciting finishing hole.

The Club has hosted the Canada Cup in 1963, the French Open Championship twice and the prestigious Tophée Lancôme for 34 years on the European Tour.

Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche is also co-hosting the 2022 World Amateur Team Championships between 24th August and 3rd September alongside Ryder Cup venue Le Golf National so the week should prove useful to the England players and selectors.

It is these Championships that perhaps explain why England are not hosting this year and have again travelled to France.

Weather Forecast

Near perfect golfing weather is expected in Northern France in the coming days; warm sunshine with light breezes.

Sat 14th May – Sunny / Wind 8 mph E / Temp. Min. 13°C / Max. 25°C.
Sun 15th May – Sunny / Wind 8 mph SE / Temp. Min. 16°C / Max. 30°C.

Further Information

Click here to view the Federation of French Golf’s webpage – France v. England International Match

Match History

This International Match was first played in 1934, originally starting with 6 players per side before moving to 8 in 1949.

It lapsed after the 1962 match at Ganton Golf Club but was resurrected in 1982 at Chantilly with a new format which has been retained to this day.

Frilford Heath Golf Club, hosts of the 1984 match, donated a silver salver which the winning team retains.

England v. France Match Salver (Photo: Alexis Orloff / FFGolf)

To date England have won 30 of the matches with France winning just 5, the last one being in 2010 at Chantilly.

2018 International Match

England beat France 13-7 in the last Men’s International Match played in 2018 at Vidauban Golf Club near St. Tropez.

The 2018 England Team (Photo: Federation of French Golf / @ffgolf)

With heavy rain forecast on Day 2 the decision was taken to cancel the Foursomes series and to concentrate on completing the eight Singles. England’s five shot margin of victory meant that the decision not to play the four morning games didn’t affect the overall match result.

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France v. England Day 1 and Day 2 2018 Results (Photo: Federation of French Golf)

Past Results

The overall match record is Played 35, England 30 Wins and France 5 Wins.

Match	Year	Venue	England	France	Winner
36	2021	St-Nom-la-Bretèche	13.5	10.5	England
	2020	Cancelled
35	2018	Vidauban	13	7	England
34	2016	Formby	14	10	England
33	2014	Fontainebleau	13	11	England
32	2012	Roch. & Cobham	15	9	England
31	2010	Chantilly	11	13	France
30	2008	Frilford Heath	14	10	England
29	2006	Golf du Medoc	16.5	7.5	England
28	2004	Royal St. George’s	11.5	12.5	France
27	2002	Chantilly	17.5	6.5	England
26	2000	Chart Hills	17.5	6.5	England
25	1998	Les Bordes	11.5	12.5	France
24	1996	Sunningdale	9	15	France
23	1994	Nimes	17	7	England
22	1992	Royal Lytham	18	6	England
21	1990	Morfontaine	16.5	7.5	England
20	1988	Berkshire	16	8	England
19	1986	Hossegor	14.5	9.5	England
18	1984	Frilford Heath	16	8	England
17	1982	Chantilly	13	11	England
1963-1981 No matches were played
16	1962	Ganton	7.5	4.5	England
15	1960	Chantilly	7.5	4.5	England
14	1959	West Hill	8.5	3.5	England
13	1956	Chantilly	10	2	England
12	1954	Berkshire	11	1	England
11	1952	Deal	8	4	England
10	1950	Morfontaine	8.5	3.5	England
9	1949	Deal	5	4	England
8	1948	St. Cloud	5.5	3.5	England
7	1947	Wentworth	8	1	England
1940-1946 No matches were played
6	1939	Morfontaine	5	4	France
5	1938	Sunningdale	8.5	0.5	England
4	1937	Chantilly	7	0	England
3	1936	Deal	5.5	3.5	England
2	1935	St. Germain-en-Laye	5.5	3.5	England
1	1934	Wentworth	5.5	3.5	England

N.B. Matches 1–8 had 6 players and matches 9-35 had 8 players

ME.

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Tag Archives: England

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