Friday 9th August 2024
Ireland won the Raymond Trophy at the 2024 Men’s Home Internationals winning all three of their games and accumulating 25.5 points.
Ireland Women and Men’s Mixed Team (Photo: Chris Young / Scottish Golf)
Each match consisted of four morning Foursomes and eight afternoon Singles.
Click here to view the detailed – Men’s Home Internationals Results
Here is my analysis of the individual performances which highlights the star men from each team: –
All Scoring and Tables shown in this article for the 2024 competition are shared courtesy of Scottish Golf.
Day 3
Scotland v. Wales
Wales beat Scotland 8.0-4.0.
After the Foursomes series was halved Wales pulled away from the host nation in the opening five Singles, winning four and halving the other. It appears that the final three pairs were called off once the result became undoubted.
Ireland v. England
In the winner-takes-it all final match Ireland beat England by 8.0-4.0.
The Irish took a nice advantage into the singles and ultimately finished off the match in style by edging a number of close Singles.
ME.
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Thursday 8th August 2024
Day 2
Ireland and England both finished Day 2 unbeaten albeit Ireland sit top of the table with 2.5 more match points.
England v. Scotland
England beat Scotland 7.5-4.5.
A superb Singles performance, where they secured 6.5 points out of the 8.0 available, helped England to a bounce-back win against Scotland who had them on the ropes after the morning Foursomes.
England’s Charlie FORSTER and Will HOPKINS remain unbeaten from their four games.
Cormac SHARPE was unbeaten for the Scots on the day and enjoyed his second big Singles win.
Wales v. Ireland
Ireland thrashed Wales 10.0-2.0.
A clean sweep in the four foursomes for Ireland was followed by five Singles wins as they outclassed their opponents today.
Liam NOLAN and Seán KEELING took their tournament win records to four out of four.
Tom MATTHEWS bounced back well with the sole Singles win for the Welsh.
ME.
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Wednesday 7th August 2024
Day 1
England and Ireland were the winning teams on Day 1 and are tied at the top of the 2024 Men’s Home Internationals table.
England v. Wales
England beat Wales 7.5-4.5.
Wales will be pleased to have tied the afternoon Singles series but disappointed to let the earlier Foursomes get away from them.
Seb CAVE, Charlie FORSTER and Will HOPKINS secured maximum points for the English in this match.
Ireland v. Scotland
Ireland beat Scotland 7.5-4.5.
Ireland got off to the best possible start with a win against the host nation albeit Scotland will be disappointed with the contribution from their leading players.
Liam NOLAN and Seán KEELING were both unbeaten for the Irish in the match whilst Andrew DAVIDSON and Jack MCDONALD picked up two points for the Scots.
ME.
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6th August 2024
This year’s Men’s Home Internationals will be played at Murcar Links G.C. in Aberdeen, Scotland on 7th-9th August 2024.
ENGLAND will be defending the Raymond Trophy which they won at Machynys Peninsula G.C. in Wales last year.
This article will focus on the Men’s Home Internationals and will be updated with further information once the competition starts.
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 mixed event.
The R&A first introduced this type of change in August 2021 when they took control of and combined both the Boys’ and Girls’ Home Internationals and Senior Men’s and Women’s Home Internationals at Woodhall Spa.
Whilst the mixed 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.
For reasons that haven’t been communicated – at least not to me – The R&A appear to have stepped back from running all of the Home Internationals in 2024 returning their organisation to each host nation.
Hopefully this means that in due course we can remove the mixed element completely and return to the separate men’s and women’s competitions which have a lot of history and tradition and in my opinion should not have been interfered with.
2024 Men’s Players
The four national golf unions have selected the following players to represent their countries this year. I have added their World Amateur Golf Rankings as at 31st July 2024 in brackets.
ENGLAND
Seb CAVE – Coxmoor (294)
Dominic CLEMONS – Gog Magog (142)
Matthew DODD-BERRY – Royal Liverpool (125)
Charlie FORSTER – Basingstoke (239)
Daniel HAYES – Bramhall (507)
Josh HILL – Trump Dubai (412)
Will HOPKINS – Belton Park (57)
Tom OSBORNE – Lindrick (386)
Harley SMITH – The Rayleigh (428)
Jack Bigham (35) and Tyler Weaver (74) are unavailable as they are competing in the U.S. Amateur Championship on 12-18 August 2024.
IRELAND
Colm CAMPBELL – Warrenpoint (1,045)
Paul COUGHLAN – Castleknock (1,531)
Hugh FOLEY – Royal Dublin (779)
Ryan GRIFFIN – Ballybofey & Stanoriar (825)
Thomas HIGGINS – Roscommon (497)
Josh HILL – Galgorm Castle (952)
Seán KEELING – Roganstown (277)
Liam NOLAN – Galway (80)
Luke O’NEILL – Connemara (719)
Max Kennedy (28) and Matthew McClean (75) are unavailable as they are competing in the U.S. Amateur Championship.
SCOTLAND
Cameron ADAM – Royal Burgess (184)
Andrew DAVIDSON – Crail (654)
Gregor GRAHAM – Blairgowrie (101)
Ross LAIRD – Glenbervie (1,174)
Jack MCDONALD – Roxburghe (879)
James MORGAN – Longniddery (755)
Cormac SHARPE – Blairgowrie (2,193)
Gregor TAIT – Aldeburgh (418)
Matthew WILSON – Forres (673)
Connor Graham (134), Calum Scott (12) and Niall Shiels Donegan (365) are unavailable as they are competing in the U.S. Amateur Championship.
WALES
Theo BAKER – Celtic Manor (1,458)
Jonathan BALE – Royal Porthcawl (296)
Tom BASTOW – Isle of Purbeck (790)
Tomi BOWEN – Welshpool (178)
Caolan BURFORD – Rhuddlan (668)
Archie DAVIES – Carlisle (560)
Tom MATTHEWS – Aldersley Green (369)
Matt ROBERTS – Royal Porthcawl (369)
Max WEAVER – Bury St. Edmunds (1,873)
James Ashfield (25) 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. The three champions were Harley Smith, Alexander Farmer and Jamie Dean. In 2023 none of the three champions, Ben Brown, Cameron Adam and Max Weaver, competed in the Home Internationals. This year Harley Smith makes it one out of the three.
Venue – Murcar Links Golf Club
Murcar Links G.C. was established in 1909 and lies to the north of Royal Aberdeen G.C.
It was originally designed by Archie Simpson with James Braid refining the layout in the 1930s. More recent improvements have been made by Graeme J. Webster’s Team Niblick Ltd.
Murcar’s championship course (black tees) plays to 6,516 yards, has a par of 71, a course rating of 72.8 and a slope rating of 136.
Murcar hosted the inaugural Saltire Energy Paul Lawrie Match Play competition on the European Tour in 2016. It has also staged the European Girls Team Championship (2009), the Scottish Amateur Stroke Play (2009), the European Boys Team Championship (2013) and the Amateur Championship – SPQ (2018).
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.
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
The Men’s Home Internationals were first played in 1932 and this year’s staging will be the 83rd 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 82 competitions played to date England have won 40, 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)
2024 Weather Forecast (as at 6th August 2024)
The forecast is currently looking reasonably good for the three competition days: –
Wed. 7th Aug. – Sunny Intervals / Wind 21 mph SW / Temp. Min 11º, Max 19º
Thurs. 8th Aug. – Sunny Intervals / Wind 15 mph SE / Temp. Min 13º, Max 19º
Fri. 9th Aug. – Light Rain / Wind 16 mph W / Temp. Min 11º, Max 19º
2023 R&A Men’s Home Internationals
ENGLAND successfully defended the Men’s Raymond Trophy last year at Machnys Peninsula Ballyliffin G.C. in Ireland.
England beat Ireland on the final day by 3.0 points to snatch the title from their opponents by just 0.5 points scored.
Despite losing to Scotland on the final day Wales finished 3rd. Scotland also missed out by 0.5 points scored.
2023 Men’s Home Internationals Final Table (Graphic: Golfbox / The R&A)
Click here to view the – Golfbox R&A Men’s Home Internationals Results
Historic Results
Click here to view all of the – Men’s Home Internationals Historic Results
ME.
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