13th May 2018
England beat France 13 – 7 in the 2018 Men’s International Match.
The 2018 England Team (Photo: Federation of French Golf / @ffgolf)
With heavy rain forecast to start in the St. Tropez area around midday the decision was taken to cancel the Day 2 Foursomes series and to concentrate on completing the 8 Singles.
England enjoyed a great team performance winning the Day 2 Singles series 6.5 – 1.5. This took them to a 13 – 7 lead and therefore meant the decision to cancel the four foursomes was pleasingly irrelevant to the overall match result.
As you can see from the results below there were Singles wins for Matthew Jordan, Todd Clements, Andrew Wilson, Ben Jones, Bailey Gill and David Hague.
Well done to the England team and in particular Ben Jones and David Hague who were both unbeaten in all three of their matches.
Day 2 Scoreboard (Photo: Federation of French Golf)
Click here to view the – Event Information & Results (www.ffgolf.org)
ME.
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12th May 2018
England lead France 6.5 – 5.5 after the first day’s play at Vidauban G.C.
The morning foursomes were shared, two a piece. Matthew Jordan and Gian-Marco Petrozzi and Ben Jones and David Hague were the successful pairings for England.
The afternoon singles also proved tight with England narrowly edging them 4.5 – 3.5. Ben Jones enjoyed the most convincing win, 7&5 over Jeong-Weon Ko. Gian-Marco Petrozzi and David Hague (both 4&3) also did well against Antoine Auburn and Paul Margolis respectively. Todd Clements picked up England’s fourth win battling hard for a 2Up win against Victor Veyret.
Tomorrow will hopefully see a further four foursomes and eight singles so there is clearly still lots to play for. I say hopefully because forecast rain in the afternoon is expected to lead to some adjustments being made to the match format.
Day 1 Scoreboard (Photo: Federation of French Golf)
ME.
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11th May 2018
England take on France this coming weekend in the 35th Men’s International Match between the two countries.
This year’s match is being played at Vidauban Golf Club in South East France.
Format
8 man teams from each country play 4 foursomes and 8 single matches on the two competition days.
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 2016 match they will also retain the trophy in the event of a 12-12 tie.
France is 1 hour ahead of the UK so play on Day 1 will start at 7.30am our time.
Teams
Here are the two 8 man teams with their current Scratch Player World Amateur Rankings in brackets: –
England
Todd Clements (21)
Bailey Gill (301)
David Hague (100)
Ben Jones (174)
Matthew Jordan (14)
Billy McKenzie (200)
Gian-Marco Petrozzi (93)
Andrew Wilson (433)
France
Antoine Auboin (347)
Edgar Catherine (105)
Clément Charmasson (305)
Jeong-Weon Ko (789)
Frédéric Lacroix (126)
Aymeric Laussot (813)
Paul Margolis (742)
Victor Veyret (332)
England will clearly start the match as favourites as is normally the case. At this time of year, with a number of players still engaged in the US College Championship series, France simply don’t have the strength in depth.
Venue
Vidauban Golf Club is an ultra-private club that was opened in 1999 on the hilly land around 10 miles north of St. Tropez.
Vidauban G.C. (Photo: Patrick Jantet)
The site was originally acquired by the famous golf architect Robert Trent Jones Snr. in the late 1970s. Fraught with subsequent financial and planning issues a course was eventually designed on the land by his son Robert Trent Jones Jnr.
Following recent renovation work the course is now established as one of Continental Europe’s finest. It is an undulating parkland track often compared with Spain’s Valderrama both in design and standing.
Adam Lawrence briefly tells the story of Vidauban in an October 2016 article for – Golf Course Architecture Magazine.
Background
This International Match was first played in 1934, originally starting with 6 players aside before moving to 8 in 1949.
It lapsed after the 1962 match at Ganton G.C. but was resurrected in 1982 at Chantilly with a new format which has been retained to this day. It has been played biennially ever since.
Frilford Heath G.C., hosts of the 1984 match, donated a silver salver which the winning team retains.
England v. France Match Salver (Photo: Cyprien Comoy / Vidauban G.C.)
To date England have won 29 of the matches with France winning just 5, the last one being in 2010 at Chantilly.
Previous Results
England beat France 14 -10 in the 2016 match played at Formby G.C – Full Results
The 2016 England Team (Photo: GolfBible)
The England team back then consisted of Jamie Bower, Scott Gregory, Josh Hilleard, Paul Kinnear, Bradley Moore, Alfie Plant, Ashton Turner and James Walker.
The overall match record is Played 34, England Won 29 and France Won 5.
| Match |
Year |
Venue |
England |
France |
Winner |
| 35 | 2018 | Vidauban | |||
| 34 | 2016 | Formby | 14 | 10 | England |
| 33 | 2014 | Fontainebleau | 13 | 11 | England |
| 32 | 2012 | Rochester & 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 & St. Annes | 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.
Copyright © 2018, Mark Eley. All rights reserved.
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