Spain crowned European Amateur Team champions
Courtesy of European Golf Association
Spain defeated Sweden on Saturday to win the European Amateur Team Champions at Royal St. George's, England.
Halfway through the morning foursomes session, it looked like the points would be split, with Big 10 individual champion
David Nyfjall and
Hugo Townsend up in their match, and Luis Masaveu and Quim Vidal winning theirs.
The Spanish pair closed out the second foursomes match on the 16th, while Arizona State teammates
David Puig and
Jose Luis Ballester fought back in theirs, taking it all-square heading down the 18th.
A birdie from Townsend and Nyfjall halted the Spanish comeback and took the score to 1-1 at lunch.
Spain went up early in four of the afternoon singles and never looked in trouble.
Javier Barcos won his match 4&2, shortly followed by
Luis Masaveu winning 3&2.
David Lundgren responded with a point for the Swedish side, but Ballester was two-up in his match, while Puig was four-up in his.
A birdie on the par-3 16th from Ballester secured a 3&2 victory, and the title for the Spanish side.
The victory is their fifth in the European Amateur Team Championship and their first since 2017.
In the bronze medal match, defending champions, Denmark took on hosts, England.
Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen and
Søren Lind won the first foursomes match 3&1 to draw first blood for Denmark. The second foursomes match had to be decided in extra holes. The point would ultimately go to Denmark on the 20th, with
Hamish Brown and
Jens Kristian Thysted making it 2-0.
The hosts struggled to recover from the two-point deficit to the defending champions. Frederik Birkelund defeated Arron Edwards-Hill 3&2 to put Denmark within just a point of securing third place. Despite some close matches in the afternoon, Frederik Kjettrup defeated Barclay Brown on the 19th to clinch the bronze medals for Denmark.
View results for European Amateur Team
ABOUT THE European Amateur Team
Teams of 6 players representing their home
(European)
country. Two rounds of stroke play qualifying in a
best-
5-scores-of-6 format determines two match play
brackets of 8 teams each.
Team matches consist of two best-ball matches and
five
singles matches, with the team winning more points
(out of 7 total) advancing.
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