NCAA Division I Men’s Regionals – 2024 Preview & Results

Posted on 01/05/2024 by Golf Bible

15th May 2024

Here is a summary of the results from the six 54-hole NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Regional Championships which were played on 13th-15th May 2024.

The low five teams (30 in total) and the low individual (6 in total) not on one of those teams from each Regional advanced to the National Championships.

For more information on these Regional Championships please read the Preview article lower down this page.

The 2024 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship will be played at Omni La Costa Resort in Carlsbad, California on 24th-29th May 2024.

AUSTIN, TEXAS

CLICK HERE FOR THE GOLFSTAT SCORES – TEAM and INDIVIDUAL

TEAM QUALIFIERS: 1st Texas (-27), 2nd Tennessee (-11), 3rd Notre Dame (-6), 4th Utah (-2), 5th Wake Forest (+2), after play-off with Brigham Young (+2)

INDIVIDUAL MEDALIST: Christian Maas (Texas) -9

INDIVIDUAL QUALIFIER: Kelvin Hernandez (UNCG) T3 -6

GB&I PLAYERS:
Qualified – JOSH HILL (ENG) Rd 1-3 NS
Non-Qualified – JOSEPH SULLIVAN (ENG / FLORIDA GULF COAST) T25 +2, GAVIN O’NEILL (IRL / GRAND CANYON) T55 +11, JACK MAXEY (ENG / ARKANSAS STATE) 65th +14th, JOSHUA MCCABE (IRL / GRAND CANYON) T66 +15

2022 Brabazon Trophy winner Christiaan Maas led his Texas team to victory in Austin. Texas extended their record streak of consecutive Nationals appearances to an impressive 17 and they will arrive in California as one of the favourites. Joe Sullivan, playing as an individual, dropped 4-shots in his closing four holes to finish T25 on +2.

BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA

CLICK HERE FOR THE GOLFSTAT RESULTS – TEAM and INDIVIDUAL

TEAM QUALIFIERS: 1st Auburn (-21), 2nd Virginia (-13), 3rd Texas Tech (-8), 4th Ohio State (Ev), 5th LSU (+4)

INDIVIDUAL MEDALIST: Baard Skogen (NOR / Texas Tech) -8

INDIVIDUAL QUALIFIER: Ethan Evans (Duke) T2 -6

GB&I PLAYERS:
Qualified – CALUM SCOTT (SCO / TEXAS TECH) T2 -6
Non-Qualified – MAX KENNEDY (IRL / LOUISVILLE) T20 +2, ARCHIE SMITH (ENG / LITTLE ROCK) T49 +10, SAM POTTER (ENG / LIPSCOMB) T54 +12, PATRICK KEELING (IRL / LOUISVILLE) Rd 1-2 T65 +16 / Rd 3 NS, HUGH ADAMS (ENG / OREGON) Rd 1 -3 NS

Highly fancied Auburn came through strongly on the final day with a -20 score to pick up the Championship. Calum Scott and Max Kennedy finished in the top 20 but only Calum’s Texas Tech team progressed to the Nationals.

CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA

CLICK HERE FOR THE GOLFSTAT RESULTS – TEAM and INDIVIDUAL

TEAM QUALIFIERS: 1st Clemson (-25), 2nd East Tennessee State (-24), 3rd North Carolina (-20), 4th Georgia Tech (-17), 5th Baylor (-15)

INDIVIDUAL MEDALIST: Austin Greaser (North Carolina) -13

INDIVIDUAL QUALIFIER: Nick Matthews (NC State) T2 -12

GB&I PLAYERS:
Qualified – THOMAS HIGGINS (IRL / CLEMSON) T14 -6, MATTHEW DODD-BERRY (ENG / EAST TENNESSEE STATE) T14 -6, JENSON FORRESTER (ENG / EAST TENNESSEE STATE) T48 +4, BEN CARBERRY (SCO / EAST TENNESSEE STATE) Rd 1-3 NS
Non-Qualified – CHARLIE FORSTER (ENG / LONG BEACH STATE) 4th -11, CAMERON ADAM (SCO / NORTHWESTERN) 29th -1, CONOR GOUGH (ENG / CHARLOTTE) T42 +3 NIALL SHIELS DONEGAN (SCO / NORTHWESTERN) T42 +3

East Tennessee State, coached by England’s Jake Amos, continued their fine form with a strong qualification but were just piped to the Championship by surprise package Clemson. Thomas Higgins and Matt Dodd-Berry impressed for their teams but the GB&I star of the show was undoubtedly Charlie Forster who finished 4th. Sadly he missed out on progressing as an Individual by 1-shot to Nick Matthews. Forster’s Long Beach team finished 7th on -13, 2-shots short of Baylor in 5th.

RANCHO SANTE FE, CALIFORNIA

CLICK HERE FOR THE GOLFSTAT RESULTS – TEAM and INDIVIDUAL

TEAM QUALIFIERS: 1st Oklahoma (-3), 2nd California (+3), 3rd Oklahoma State (+5), 4th West Virginia (+5), 5th North Florida (+10)

INDIVIDUAL MEDALIST: Ben Lorenz (Oklahoma) -8

INDIVIDUAL QUALIFIER: Andi Xu (San Diego) T2 -4

GB&I PLAYERS:
Qualified – None
Non-Qualified – PAUL CONROY (IRL / CHATTANOOGA) T42 +11, DAVID LALLY (IRL / SETON HALL) T47 +12, GEORGE FRICKER (ENG / SETON HALL) 67th +20

The Rancho Sante Fe course played tough with scoring high. West Virginia, who finished 3rd, progressed to the Nationals for the first time in 47 years. However, the real upset here was that Pac-12 champions and top seeds Arizona State could only manage a 6th place finish so missed out. There was no joy for the small number of GB&I players at this site.

STANFORD, CALIFORNIA

CLICK HERE FOR THE GOLFSTAT RESULTS – TEAM and INDIVIDUAL

TEAM QUALIFIERS: 1st Illinois (-36), 2nd Florida State (-28), 3rd Texas A&M (-19), T4 SMU (-10), T4 Stanford (-10)

INDIVIDUAL MEDALIST: Max Herendeen (Illinois) -13

INDIVIDUAL QUALIFIER: Ben Warian (Minnesota) – T2 -11

GB&I PLAYERS:
Qualified – BARCLAY BROWN (ENG / STANFORD) T18 -2, TYLER WEAVER (ENG / FLORIDA STATE) Rd 1-3 NS
Non-Qualified – ENRIQUE DIMAYUGA (ENG / NEVADA) T14 -4, CHARLIE CROCKETT (ENG / MISSOURI) T26 -1, JOE SYKES (ENG / IDAHO) T44 +3

Playing as an Individual Enrique Dimayuga continued his excellent Spring Season form with a T14 finish at Stanford. Charlie Crockett also played better than his score falling down the leaderboard after a disappointing finish to his final round. Stanford narrowly avoided the embarrassment of missing out on their home course thus affording both Michael Thorbjornsen and Barclay Brown a proper send off at the Nationals.

WEST LAFAYETTE, INDIANA

CLICK HERE FOR THE GOLFSTAT RESULTS – TEAM and INDIVIDUAL

TEAM QUALIFIERS: 1st Vanderbilt (-24), 2nd Purdue (-11), 3rd Florida (-4), 4th Arizona (-3), 5th New Mexico (-2)

INDIVIDUAL MEDALIST: William Moll (Vanderbilt) -7

INDIVIDUAL QUALIFIER: Cameron Huss (Wisconsin) T4 -5, after play-off with Garrett Endicott (Mississippi State) & Owen Stamper (Middle Tennessee State)

GB&I PLAYERS:
Qualified – SAM EASTERBROOK (ENG / PURDUE) T44 +6
Non-Qualified – DOMINIC CLEMONS (ENG / STETSON) T41 +4, Matt GAUNTLETT (ENG / STETSON) Rd 1 68th +8 / Rd 2 NS / Rd 3 +4, ANDREW THORNTON (SCO / SOUTHERN ILLINOIS) Rd 1 76th +11 / Rd 2-3 NS

Vanderbilt demonstrated their class with a 13-shot win at West Lafayette. Purdue, with Sam Easterbrook in their line up, finished 2nd to join them in the forthcoming Nationals at Carlsbad.

ME.

1st May 2024 (Updated 12th May 2024)

Regional Championships

The six 54 hole NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Regional Championships will be played on 13th-15th May 2024.

81 teams and 45 individuals, from non-qualifying teams, were selected on 1st May 2024 to compete at these competitions.

Local Conference Championships were played across the country in April with 30 Conference team champions granted automatic qualification into the 2024 Regionals. The remaining teams progressed based on their performances throughout the season.

13 teams and 10 individuals were allocated to three of the Regional venues with the remaining sites hosting 14 teams and 5 individuals. As always the draw has been made in such a way that all of the fields are of a similar strength.

Teams of five players play 72 holes of stroke play with their best four scores counting towards their team’s total score. Players, who play in each round, are also eligible for a separate Individual competition.

National Championships

5 teams and the top individual (not on one of those teams) from each Regional event will progress to the National Championship which will be played at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California on 24th-29th May 2024.

The National Championships start with 54 holes of stroke play. The top 15 teams and 9 individuals, not on an advancing team, then progress to a final 18 holes of stroke play. After these 72 holes have been played an Individual champion is determined and the top 8 teams advance to a match play stage to establish the Team champions.

Florida is the defending champion after they defeated Georgia Tech 3-1 in the 2023 Championship Final, played at Greyhawk G.C. in Scottsdale, Arizona. Florida’s Fred BIONDI (BRA) won the Individual title with a 273 (-7) total.

Details of the six Regional Championships are shown below with each team listed in seed order and, if they earned automatic qualification, the Conference Championship they recently won to do so.

GB&I players attached to the qualifying colleges are highlighted in bold blue type. Each team is now allowed to take a Reserve to the event so it is possible some may not play or be subbed in and out during the week.

27 GB&I players will start the Regional Championships with a further 4 on the bench waiting to be called upon.

AUSTIN, TEXAS
Course: The University of Texas Golf Club / Host: Texas
CLICK HERE FOR THE GOLFSTAT SCORES – TEAM and INDIVIDUAL

Teams
1. Tennessee – JOSH HILL (ENG) #6
2. Arkansas
3. Texas – Big 12 Conference
4. Georgia
5. Wake Forest
6. Notre Dame
7. UNC Greensboro
8. Brigham Young
9. Utah
10. San Jose State
11. Grand Canyon – Western Athletic Conference – GAVIN O’NEILL (IRL) #3, JOSHUA MCCABE (IRL) #5 SAM MURPHY (IRL) NS, CRAIG PASSMORE (ENG) NS
12. Arkansas State – Sun Belt Conference – JACK MAXEY (ENG) #2
13. Kansas City – The Summit League

Individuals
Gustav Frimodt, TCU
Luke Gutschewski, Iowa State
Hunter Bott, UTSA
Cooper Schultz, Kansas State
Kobe Valociek, Virginia Tech
JOSEPH SULLIVAN (ENG), Florida Gulf Coast
Erik Jansson, Jacksonville State
Justin Brewer, Colorado
Alexandre Vandermoten, Jacksonville
Peicheng Chen, St. John’s

BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
Course: Louisiana State University Club / Host: Louisiana State
CLICK HERE FOR THE GOLFSTAT RESULTS – TEAM and INDIVIDUAL

Teams
1. Auburn – Southeastern Conference
2. Virginia
3. Texas Tech – CALUM SCOTT (SCO) #3
4. Oregon – HUGH ADAMS (ENG) #6, DANIEL BULLEN (SCO) NS
5. Duke
6. Ohio State
7. LSU
8. Louisville – MAX KENNEDY (IRL) #3, PATRICK KEELING (IRL) #5
9. Houston – RUBEN LINDSAY (SCO) NS
10. South Carolina
11. Lipscomb – ASUN Conference – SAM POTTER (ENG) #3
12. Yale – Ivy League
13. Loyola Maryland – Patriot League
14. Arkansas, Pine Bluff – Southwestern Athletic Conference

Individuals
Alex Goff, Kentucky
Max Sturdza, Florida Athletic
Niilo Maki-Petaja, Louisiana Tech
Hugo Thyr, South Alabama
ARCHIE SMITH (ENG), Little Rock

CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA
Course: University of North Carolina Finley Golf Course / Host: University of North Carolina
CLICK HERE FOR THE GOLFSTAT RESULTS – TEAM and INDIVIDUAL

Teams
1. North Carolina – Atlantic Coast Conference
2. Alabama
3. Georgia Tech
4. East Tennessee State – Southern Conference – MATTHEW DODD-BERRY (ENG) #3, JENSON FORRESTER (ENG) #4, BEN CARBERRY (SCO) #6, ARCHIE DAVIES (WAL) NS, JOSHUA PRITCHETT (ENG) NS
5. Northwestern – Big Ten Conference – CAMERON ADAM (SCO) #3, NIALL SHIELS DONEGAN (SCO) #4
6. Baylor
7. VCU – Atlantic 10 Conference
8. Loyola Marymount (LMU)
9. Long Beach State – Big West Conference – CHARLIE FORSTER (ENG) #2
10. Clemson – THOMAS HIGGINS (IRL) #2
11. Michigan State
12. Ball State – Mid-American Conference
13. Howard – Northeast Conference

Individuals
Tobias Jonsson, Mercer
Walker Isley, UNCW
Nick Matthews, NC State
CONOR GOUGH (ENG), Charlotte
Will Davis, Davidson
Spencer Oxendine, NC State
Erik Johansson, Campbell
Claes Borregaard, Kennesaw State
Justin LaRue, Longwood
Fred Roberts IV, High Point

RANCHO SANTE FE, CALIFORNIA
Course: The Farms Golf Club / Host: San Diego
CLICK HERE FOR THE GOLFSTAT RESULTS – TEAM and INDIVIDUAL

Teams
1. Arizona State – Pac-12 Conference
2. Washington
3. Oklahoma
4. California
5. Oklahoma State
6. North Florida
7. Chattanooga – PAUL CONROY (IRL) #3
8. South Florida – American Athletic Conference
9. San Diego – West Coast Conference
10. West Virginia
11. Kansas
12. Wright State – Horizon League
13. Seton Hall – Big East Conference – DAVID LALLY (IRL) #3, GEORGE FRICKER (ENG) #5
14. Winthrop – Big South Conference

Individuals
Mahanth Chirravuri, Pepperdine
Tegan Andrews, Cal State Fullerton
William Walsh, Pepperdine
Brady Siravo, Pepperdine
Kevin Li, Seattle University

STANFORD, CALIFORNIA
Course: Stanford Golf Course / Host: Stanford
CLICK HERE FOR THE GOLFSTAT RESULTS – TEAM and INDIVIDUAL

Teams
1. Florida State – TYLER WEAVER (ENG) #6, JACK BIGHAM (ENG) NS
2. Ole Miss
3. Illinois
4. Texas A&M
5. Stanford – BARCLAY BROWN (ENG) #5
6. UCLA
7. SMU
8. Missouri – CHARLIE CROCKETT (ENG) #2
9. Fresno State
10. UNLV
11. Augusta University – Southland Conference
12. Liberty – Conference USA
13. Sacramento State – Big Sky Conference
14. Siena – Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference

Individuals
ENRIQUE DIMAYUGA (ENG), Nevada
Ben Warian, Minnesota
Jakob Melin, San Francisco
Cole Rueck, Boise State
JOE SYKES (ENG), Idaho

WEST LAFAYETTE, INDIANA
Course: Brick Boilermaker Golf Complex / Host: Purdue
CLICK HERE FOR THE GOLFSTAT RESULTS – TEAM and INDIVIDUAL

Teams
1. Vanderbilt
2. Arizona
3. Florida – JOE PAGDIN (ENG) NS, LUKE POULTER (ENG) NS
4. New Mexico
5. Purdue – SAM EASTERBROOK (ENG) #5
6. San Diego State – Mountain West Conference
7. Mississippi State
8. Indiana
9. College of Charleston – Coastal Athletic Association
10. Stetson – DOMINIC CLEMONS (ENG) #1, Matt GAUNTLETT (ENG) #5
11. Colorado State
12. Southern Illinois – Missouri Valley Conference – ANDREW THORNTON (SCO) #5
13. Tennessee Tech – Ohio Valley Conference

Individuals
Caleb Van Arragon, Valparaiso
Hunter Thomson, Michigan
Cameron Huss, Wisconsin
Barend Botha, Toledo
Valentin Peugnet, Illinois State
Owen Stamper, Middle Tennessee
Alex McCulla, Illinois State
Ty Ginerich, Cincinnati
Luke Fuller, Western Kentucky
Ben Ortwein, Rider

NS – Not Selected

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

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.

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

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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.

Screenshot 2023-08-11 at 20.16.16

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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.

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.

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.

The St. Andrews Links Trophy – 2023 Preview & Results

Posted on 05/06/2023 by Golf Bible

11th June 2023

Alex MAGUIRE (IRL) won the St. Andrews Links Trophy by 5-shots with rounds of 70, 66, 66 and 64 and a 266 (-21) total.

Maguire’s -20 total for the final 54 holes on the host course, let alone his strong run of recent results, must bode well for his chances of being selected for the GB&I Walker Cup team.

The winner said “It feels absolutely amazing to be able to call myself the St. Andrews Links champion. What a place to win. You couldn’t pick a better place to have a victory than the Old Course. I’m absolutely delighted.”

The Laytown & Bettystown member became the fourth Irish winner following in the footsteps of Alan Dunbar (2009), Connor O’Rourke (2016) and John Murphy (2018).

Alex Maguire (Photo: St. Andrews Links Trust)

Round 4

Starting the final round tied for the lead the Irishman quickly got into his stride and pulled away from the field with an outward 31 (-5). It is to his huge credit that he was able to add three more birdies on the back nine to complete a flawless final round of 64, the lowest score seen at the tournament.

Alex Maguire’s Scorecards (Graphic: St. Andrews Links Trust / Golf Genius)

Albert HANSSON (SWE) -16 finished 2nd, Calum SCOTT (SCO) -15 3rd, Harry CROCKETT (ENG) -15 4th and Paul BEAUVY (FRA) -12 5th.

It was a welcome return to form for Calum Scott who chose not to take up his WAGR Top 50 exemption into U.S. Open Final Qualifying and come home in good time to prepare for the St. Andrews Links Trophy and The Amateur Championship.

Markus LUOMA (FIN) -12 bounced back well from a disappointing 72 in the morning to finish 6th with Caolan RAFFERTY (IRL) -12 again reminded us of his class with another top ten result.

Frank KENNEDY (ENG) -11 finished 8th and Charlie CROCKETT (ENG) -11, who had carried the burden of the lead for much of the tournament, 9th after he fell back with a closing 74.

26 of the 42 players broke par and 4 shot the par of 72 in Round 4.

Round 4 Results (Graphic: St. Andrews Links Trust / Golf Genius)

Click here to view the – 2023 St. Andrews Links Trophy Results

Round 3

Alex MAGUIRE (IRL) moved into a tie for the 54 hole lead on -13 after a morning 66 which included seven birdies.

Charlie CROCKETT (ENG) showed no signs of nerves, going out in 31 which included an eagle 2 on the par 4 3rd. However, he was unable to make further in roads on the back nine and as such his 68 saw him fall into a tie for 1st.

Charlie’s brother Harry CROCKETT (ENG) matched Maguire’s 66, the best achieved in this round, to move into tied 3rd with Albert HANSSON (SWE).

Caolan RAFFERTY (IRL) and Jack BIGHAM (ENG) both posted morning 67’s to move nicely up the leaderboard.

22 of the 42 players broke par and 8 shot par in Round 3 re-affirming how easy the 7,171 yard Old Course is to play when the weather is pleasant.

Round 3 Leaderboard (Graphic: St. Andrews Links Trust / Golf Genius)

ME.

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10th June 2023

Round 2

Charlie CROCKETT (ENG), playing in his first home event since returning from Missouri where he enjoyed a very good collegiate season, shot a 7-under 65 on the Old Course to take the 36-hole lead in the St. Andrews Links Trophy. The obvious highlights were his opening three birdies and his eagle two on the short par 4 10th hole.

Charlie Crockett’s Rounds 1 and 2 Scorecards (Graphic: St. Andrews Links Trust / Golf Genius)

Markus LUOMA (FIN), Jerry JI (NED), Albert HANSSON (SWE) and Rob MORAN (IRL) are all one short further back of the Surrey man after rounds of 66, 67, 68 and 69 respectively.

In form Alex MAGUIRE (IRL), who won the East of Ireland title earlier this week, matched Luoma’s 66 to finish the day tied 6th alongside Paul BEAUVY (FRA), Calum SCOTT (SCO) and Jack INGHAM (NED).

Charlie’s younger brother Harry CROCKETT (ENG), who is now at Nebraska in the States, is tied 10th on -6. I was writing about successful brothers at the Brabazon Trophy a few weeks ago and here we are again with another pair.

The international nature of this event is clear when one sees that there are twelve different nationalities represented in the current top 20.

42 players made the top 40 and ties cut, which fell at 141 (-2), ensuring themselves a further 36 holes on the Old Course on Sunday. They are all shown below:-

Round 2 Leaderboard (Graphic: St. Andrews Links Trust / Golf Genius)

Luis MASAVEU (ESP) -1, Matt ROBERTS (WAL) -1, Arron EDWARDS-HILL (ENG) -1, James CLARIDGE (ENG) Ev, Josh BERRY (ENG) Ev, Tyler WEAVER (ENG) Ev, Peter O’KEEFFE (IRL) Ev, James ASHFIELD (WAL) +1, Harley SMITH (ENG) +1, Liam NOLAN (IRL) +3, Connor GRAHAM (SCO) +4, Hugh FOLEY (IRL) +4 and John GOUGH (ENG) +4 were amongst the group of 102 players who missed the cut.

ME.

_____________________________________

9th June 2023

Round 1

Jack INGHAM (NED), Ronan KLEU (SUI), Erik JANSSON (SWE), Robert MORAN (IRL) and Peter O’KEEFFE (IRL) all recorded opening rounds of 65 (-5) on the New Course to share the 18 hole lead.

Most of these players made good starts but none better than O’Keeffe who was 5-under after 3 holes, helped considerably by an albatross on the par 5 3rd hole.

Round 1 Leader Scorecards (Graphic: St. Andrews Links Trust / Golf Genius)

Frank KENNEDY (ENG), with Fanny Sunesson on the bag again, Altin VAN DER MERWE (RSA), Ben VAN WYK (RSA) and R&A Boys’ champion Albert HANSSON (SWE) are all one shot further back after posting 67’s.

Calum SCOTT (SCO), Tomi BOWEN (WAL), Colm CAMPBELL (IRL) and Harry CROCKETT (ENG) are amongst a group of eight players tied 10th on -3.

On a lovely day in Fife 51 players broke par on the New Course with a further 20 achieving a par score of 71.

Round 1 Leaderboard (Graphic: St. Andrews Links Trust / Golf Genius)

ME.

_____________________________________

5th June 2023

144 golfers will tee off on Friday 9th June in the 34th St. Andrews Links Trophy.

This event has become one of the ‘majors’ in men’s amateur golf helped by its venue and timing.

This year it is even more important for the GB&I players who are competing as the Old Course in St. Andrews will also be hosting the 49th Walker Cup match in September.

Competition Format

The Links Trophy is a 72 hole scratch stroke play competition played annually over the St. Andrews Links in early June.

The field is primarily determined by reference to the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) and finished off with various National Golf Union and St. Andrews Links Trust nominations.

This year Round 1 will be played on the New Course and Round 2 on the Old Course. In non-Open Championship year’s the Jubilee Course normally alternates with the New for Round 1.

The New Course plays 6,681 yards to a par of 71. The front nine is 3,302 yards long with a par of 36 whilst the tougher back nine is slightly longer at 3,379 yards but has a lower par of 35.

Following a top 40 and ties cut on Saturday the leading players will play a final 36 holes on the Old Course on Sunday.

The Old Course has been set up at 7,171 yards for the event and has a par of 72. Both nines have a par of 36 and have similar yardages – the front is 3,535 yards long whilst the back is longer at 3,636 yards.

The winner will be the player who returns the lowest 72 hole aggregate score.

In the event of a tie a sudden death play-off will be held over holes 1 and 18 on the Old Course.

Ties for other places will be decided by the lowest score for the last 18 holes or the last 9 or 6 or 3 or 1 hole if necessary.

The Field

As this is the first event that takes place in Great Britain & Ireland after the U.S. college season has ended the field is stronger than we have seen in recent weeks.

GB&I Walker Cup squad members James ASHFIELD (WAL), Josh BERRY (ENG), Archie DAVIES (WAL), Arron EDWARDS-HILL (ENG), Hugh FOLEY (IRL), Connor GRAHAM (SCO), John GOUGH (ENG), Frank KENNEDY (ENG), Robert MORAN (IRL), Liam NOLAN (IRL), Peter O’KEEFFE (IRL), Mark POWER (IRL), Calum SCOTT (SCO), Dylan SHAW-RADFORD (ENG), Harley SMITH (ENG), Gregor TAIT (SCO) and Tyler WEAVER (ENG) are all competing.

The missing squad members are Barclay BROWN (ENG), Josh HILL (ENG) and Matthew MCCLEAN (IRL). Brown chose to play in U.S. Open Final Qualifying in California on Monday 5th June (he finished tied 2nd to progress), Hill withdrew having originally entered and McClean is travelling over to the U.S. Open to take up his 2022 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion exemption.

Max KENNEDY (IRL), who won the Ulster Men’s Amateur Championship last week, had planned to play but withdrew when he was selected for the International Team at the Arnold Palmer Cup, which is also being played this week. Max, who is at Louisville, was our leading player on the U.S. college circuit this season.

Other GB&I players who have been showing some recent form are Jack BIGHAM (ENG), Tomi BOWEN (WAL), Seb CAVE (ENG), Zach CHEGWIDDEN (ENG), James CLARIDGE (ENG), Paul CONROY (IRL), Will COXON (ENG), Charlie CROCKETT (ENG), Matthew DODD-BERRY (ENG), Zach LITTLE (ENG), Sean KEELING (IRL), Alex MAGUIRE (IRL), James NASH (WAL), Matt ROBERTS (WAL) and Caolan RAFFERTY (IRL); all of them should be competitive this week.

In recent weeks Liam Nolan has won the Brabazon Trophy at Sunningdale, Connor Graham the Scottish Men’s Open Championship at Meldrum House and Alex Maguire the East of Ireland Amateur Open at County Louth so all three of them will arrive with their confidence high.

The overseas players in the field that stand out to me are Harrison CROWE (AUS), Quentin DEBOVE (FRA), Albert HANSSON (SWE), Elias HAAVISTO (FIN), David LUNDGREN (SWE), Louis MASAVEU (ESP), Laurenz SCHIERGEN (GER) and Altin VAN DER MERWE (RSA).

Players from 22 countries will be competing at St. Andrews this year.

Weather Forecast (as at Wenesday 7th June)

The current weather forecast looks very good with sun and gentle breezes expected.

Friday 9th June – Sunny Intervals. Wind 14 mph E. Temp. Min. 6°C / Max. 14°C.
Saturday 10th June – Sunny. Wind 14 mph E. Temp. Min. 10°C / Max. 16°C.
Sunday 11th June – Sunny Intervals. Wind 11 mph E. Temp. Min. 12°C / Max. 18°C.

Tee times in Rounds 1 and 2 will start at 7.00am and end at 3.10pm so as with any links course the draw could play a part in proceedings.

Prizes

The winner receives The St Andrews Links Trophy and a commemorative medal.

The runner-up and third place finisher also receive medals.

Reducing voucher prizes are also awarded to the top 10 finishers.

In addition to the main prizes The Ian Forbes Memorial Cup is awarded for the best aggregate score on the first two days of the Championship.

The Open Championship

In a boost to this year’s St. Andrews Links Trophy the R&A announced a new exemption category for the 2023 Open Championship a few months ago.

The player who gains the most WAGR points in the St. Andrews Links Trophy, the Amateur Championship and the European Amateur Championship will earn a spot at Royal Liverpool G.C.

Competition Website

Click here to view the – 2023 St. Andrews Links Trophy Tournament Website

2022 St. Andrews Links Trophy

19 year old Connor MCKINNEY (AUS) won the 2022 St. Andrews Links Trophy beating compatriot Adam BRADY by 2-shots.

McKinney produced 23 birdies and just seven bogeys in his 72 holes around the Jubilee and Old Courses.

Connor McKinney (Photo: St. Andrews Links Trust)

Robert MORAN (IRL) and Arron EDWARDS-HILL (ENG) finished third and fourth on countback with Frenchman Paul BEAUVY claiming 5th.

Connor GRAHAM (SCO) 9th, Charlie CROCKETT (ENG) 12th, Matthew MCCLEAN (IRL) 13th and Matt GAUNTLETT (ENG) 15th were the other leading GB&I players.

Final Results (Photo: St. Andrews Links Trust / OCS Sport)

51 players made the top 40 and ties cut which eventually fell at 144 (Ev).

Past Winners

Click here to view a full list of the – St Andrews Links Trophy Past Winners

Only Craig WATSON (1992 and 1998), the former GB&I Walker Cup captain, and Barclay HOWARD (1994 and 1996) have won the title twice.

The most famous winner is Justin ROSE who won in 1997.

Interestingly given the normally cosmopolitan nature of the fields the Links Trophy has only been won by players from outside GB&I on four occasions – Australia’s Stuart BOVIER (1990), Daan HUIZING from The Netherlands (2012), Federico ZUCCHETTI from Italy (2015) and Connor MCKINNEY (AUS) from Australia (2022).

Huizing, who had won the 2012 Lytham Trophy by 11 shots just a few weeks earlier, set a scoring record of -23 in 2012 (65 New, 64, 68 and 67 all Old) and won by an astonishing 14 shots.

ME.

The Jacques Léglise Trophy – 2022 Preview & Results

Posted on 21/08/2022 by Golf Bible

27th August 2022

The Continent of Europe won the 45thJacques Léglise Trophy match at Blairgowrie G.C. beating Great Britain & Ireland (GB&I) by 13.5-11.5.

Having been dominated in the early years of the completion by GB&I the Continent of Europe have now won the last three matches and five of the six played since 2016.

Continent of Europe (Photo: The R&A)

Germany’s Carl Siemens was the star man for Europe winning his two foursomes with compatriot Tim Wiedemeyer and both of his singles against Englishmen Josh Berry and Josh Hill.

Saturday Singles

The Continent of Europe team capped off their successful trip to Scotland by winning the Day 2 Singles series 5.0-4.0 thus ensuring they won the overall match 13.5-11.5.

GB&I’s Tyler Weaver halved the opening game of the series with Jorge Siyuan Hao. In a high quality match both players were 4-under for the full 18 holes. Hao birdied the 17th to regain parity down the home stretch.

Harley Smith lost 3&1 to Tim Wiedemeyer. Smith started bogey, double-bogey to firmly hand the initiative to his German opponent. Wiedemeyer, making few errors, was 5Up after 12 holes before Smith regained some respectability with better play later on.

Carl Siemens beat Josh Hill 2&1 in a tight Game 3; the putts dropping for the German rather than the Dubai-based Englishman.

Dylan Shaw-Radford delivered his second Singles win beating Italy’s Marco Florioli 3&1 with a 5-under performance over the 17 holes required for victory.

Josh Berry bounced back well on Day 2 to secure a tie with Oihan Guillamoundeguy, the highly rated Frenchman. The Yorkshireman produced 5 birdies, including a critical one on the 18th.

Frank Kennedy got the better of Tom Haberer, who was out of sorts for much of the afternoon, by 4&3.

The Netherlands’ Thijmen Batens beat Connor Graham by 2 Holes helped by four consecutive birdies on the 8th to 11th holes.

Oliver Mukherjee secured GB&I’s third full point with a 1 Hole victory over William Wistrand. In a close match Mukherjee birdied both the 16th and 18th holes to edge ahead.

Hansson v. Shiels Donegan Results (Graphic: The R&A / GolfBox Scoring)

Albert Hansson produced seven unblemished birdies (see above) to blow Niall Shiels Donegan away 7&5 in just 13 holes.

Saturday Singles Results (Graphic: The R&A / GolfBox Scoring)

Saturday Foursomes

GB&I won the Day 2 Foursomes 3.0-1.0 to reduce Continent of Europe’s overnight lead of 3 points to a far more manageable one.

The opening game was an up and down affair with neither pair finding their best form. In the end the German’s Carl Siemens and Tim Wiedemeyer simply made fewer mistakes than Shaw-Radford and Shiels Donegan.

Tyler Weaver and Harley Smith scored well with four birdies to secure GB&I’s first win of the day against Guillamoundeguy and Florioli, who were unbeaten on Day 1.

Josh Hill and Oliver Mukherjee birdied the last two holes of their game against Thijmen Batens and Tom Haberer to secure GB&I’s second win by 1 Hole in the Saturday Foursomes.

Wistrand & Hansson v. Kennedy & Graham Results (Graphic: The R&A / GolfBox Scoring)

Frank Kennedy and Connor Graham produced 7 birdies in Game 4 (see above) to beat Swedish pair William Wistrand and Albert Hansson.

Saturday Foursomes Results (Graphic: The R&A / GolfBox Scoring)

Josh Berry was replaced by Tyler Weaver in the GB&I Foursomes line up on Day 2. Continent of Europe were unchanged with Jorge Siyuan Hao again left to focus on his afternoon Singles.

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26th August 2022

Friday Singles

Continent of Europe won the Day 1 Singles 5.5-2.5 to take a 7.5-4.5 half-way lead in the Jacques Léglise Trophy match. It was a disappointing series result for GB&I who at one point were leading five of the eight games on the course.

Josh Hill got the better of Jorge Siyuan Hao in the opening Single largely due to his more consistent play over the 18 holes and a crucial birdie on the par 3 17th hole.

Arguably the highest quality game of the series was the halved one between Marco Florioli and Tyler Weaver, albeit the finish was a little out of keeping with the earlier play.

Florioli v. Weaver Results (Graphic: The R&A / GolfBox Scoring)

Despite doing little wrong Harley Smith lost Game 3 by 1 Hole to the ever impressive Frenchman Oihan Guillamoundeguy who birdied the 18th to take the full point.

Josh Berry was understandably 5 Down after 7 holes after handing in a string of bogeys to the scorers. Despite bouncing back well on the back nine Carl Siemens secured an easy 5&4 win.

Dylan Shaw-Radford ensured he finished Day 1 as the only unbeaten GB&I player with a 2 Hole win over Germany’s Tim Wiedemeyer. Shaw-Radford produced 7 birdies and 1 eagle in the match.

Thijmen Batens gave Frank Kennedy little opportunity to impress in a notable 4&3 victory. After an opening hole bogey the man from The Netherlands produced 5 birdies and 1 eagle to pull away from the American-based Englishman.

Niall Shiels Donegan lost 3&2 to Germany’s Tom Haberer who seemed to be one step ahead of the Scotsman throughout the encounter.

In the final game of the day Albert Hansson, the 2022 Boys’ Amateur Championship, got the better of young Connor Graham, the 2022 Junior Open Champion by 2&1.

Friday Singles Results (Graphic: The R&A / GolfBox Scoring)

Oliver Mukherjee was rested by Captain King whilst William Wistrand was benched by the Europeans.

Friday Foursomes

Honours were even 2.0-2.0 at lunch on the opening day of the 2022 Jacques Léglise Trophy match.

Continent of Europe got off to a dream start in the opening Foursomes series immediately recording two big wins.

Guillamoundeguy & Florioli were 6-under par when their match came to a conclusion on the 14th green.

Wiedemeyer & Siemens were 5-under par for their round when they won on the 15th.

However, Great Britain & Ireland (GB&I) recovered well to win the final two games at Blairgowrie G.C.

Shaw-Radford & Shiels Donegan produced the lowest scores in the morning to secure an all-important win in Match 3. After an opening hole bogey the Anglo-Scottish pairing produced 8 birdies to secure a 2&1 victory in a high quality game.

Batens & Haberer v. Shaw-Radford & Shiels Donegan Results (Graphic: The R&A / GolfBox Scoring)

In the last encounter Graham & Kennedy, who were 3-under for the 16 holes they played, picked up the final available point.

Friday Foursomes Results (Graphic: The R&A / GolfBox Scoring)

Jorge Siyuan Hao and Tyler Weaver missed out on selection for Continent of Europe and GB&I respectively in the Day 1 Foursomes.

Click here to view the full – 2022 Jacques Léglise Trophy GolfBox Results

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21st August 2022

The 45thJacques Léglise Trophy match between Great Britain & Ireland (GB&I) and Continent of Europe will take place at Blairgowrie Golf Club in Scotland on Friday 26th and Saturday 27th August.

This annual match is contested by two nine-player U18 boys’ teams. It is essentially a junior equivalent of the biennial men’s St. Andrews Trophy match also played between these two regions.

Following wins at Aldeburgh G.C. in England (2019) and Falsterbo G.C. in Sweden (2021) the Continent of Europe are looking to make it three-in-a-row in Perthshire. The 2020 match, which was due to be played at Blairgowrie, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

2022 Teams

The R&A have selected the following players to represent GB&I (SPWAR’s at 21st August): –

Josh BERRY – Doncaster, England (SPWAR #219)
Connor GRAHAM – Blairgowrie, Scotland (SPWAR #104)
Josh HILL – Trump International Dubai, England (SPWAR #260)
Frank KENNEDY – Trump National Jupiter, England (SPWAR #252)
Oliver MUKHERJEE – Gullane, Scotland (SPWAR #287)
Dylan SHAW-RADFORD – Huddersfield, England (SPWAR #333)
Niall SHIELS DONEGAN – Meadow Club USA, Scotland (captain) (SPWAR #302)
Harley SMITH – The Rayleigh Club, England (SPWAR #112)
Tyler WEAVER – Bury St. Edmunds, England (SPWAR #232)

Reserves: 1) Sam EASTERBROOK – Olton, England and 2) Caolan BURFORD – Rhuddlan, Wales

Wales’ Chris KING, Chairman of The R&A’s GB&I Boys’ Selection Committee, will again take charge of the team.

The Jacques Léglise Trophy (Photo: European Golf Association)

The 2022 Continent of Europe team, selected by the European Golf Association, consists of: –

Thijmen BATENS – Belgium (SPWAR #524)
Marco FLORIOLI – Italy (SPWAR #87)
Oihan GUILLAMOUNDEGUY – France (SPWAR #121)
Tom HABERER – Germany (SPWAR #837)
Albert HANSSON – Sweden (SPWAR #410)
Jorge Siyuan HAO – Spain (SPWAR #62)
Carl SIEMENS – Germany (SPWAR #207)
Tim WIEDEMEYER – Germany (SPWAR #318)
William WISTRAND – Sweden (SPWAR #1,387)

Europe will be led for the third time by Non-Playing Captain Joachim FOURQUET of France.

Format

Four foursomes games are played each morning.

Singles are then played in the afternoon; eight on Day 1 and nine on Day 2.

As there will be 25 points to play for each team will require 13.0 points to claim an outright victory.

Venue

The Rosemount Course at Blairgowrie Golf Club is the venue for the 2022 match.

The course was designed by Dr. Alister MacKenzie, opening in 1927, and then extended by James Braid in 1930. Subsequent upgrades have been made to it by Donald Steel, Peter Alliss and Graeme Webster.

A heathland course set amongst pine, firs, birch and heather the Rosemount plays to 7,007 yards and has a par of 72 and a slope of 136.

Weather

The forecast suggests near perfect dry golfing conditions with moderate breezes can be expected.

Friday 26th August – Light Cloud / Wind 7 mph SW / Temp. Min. 9°C, Max. 17°C.
Saturday 27th August – Sunny Intervals / Wind 5 mph SE / Temp. Min. 10°C, Max. 19°C.

Additional Information

Click here to view the – R&A Jacques Léglise Trophy Website

The 2021 Jacques Léglise Trophy Match

Continent of Europe won the The 44thJacques Léglise Trophy match against Great Britain & Ireland (GB&I) at Falsterbo Golfklubb in Sweden.

Continent of Europe Team (Photo: European Golf Association)

The final score was 16.5-8.5 with the Continent of Europe winning ten points on Day 2 whilst GB&I could only muster three.

Continent of Europe won the opening Friday Foursomes series 3-1 to take an early advantage. GB&I fought back in the afternoon winning the Day 1 Singles 4.5-3.5.

Continent of Europe then won the Saturday Foursomes series 3.5-0.5 to take a four point lead into the final Singles which they won 6.5-2.5 to complete a comprehensive victory.

Click here to view the final – 2021 Jacques Léglise Trophy Results

Previous Matches

A junior match was first played between 1958 and 1966 with GB&I winning all of them.

After a short break it was re-instated to the amateur calendar in 1977 as the Jacques Léglise Trophy. Jean-Louis Dupont donated the new trophy in memory of Jacques Léglise, a former President of both the French Golf Association and the European Golf Association. Leglise was also a past French amateur champion and national team captain.

Since becoming the Jacques Léglise GB&I have won 29 of the matches with the Continent of Europe claiming 14 victories with the 2015 match tied. Surprisingly nine of Europe’s wins have been in away matches.

Originally played in a single day the match moved to two in 1996.

Click here to view all of the – Jaques Léglise Trophy Historic Results

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.

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.

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.

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The Home of Great British & Irish Amateur Golf

Tag Archives: Tyler Weaver

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

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The Jacques Léglise Trophy – 2022 Preview & Results

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