The Continent of Europe go into the second and final day of the St Andrews Trophy at Royal Porthcawl Golf Club with a 7-5 advantage over Great Britain & Ireland. However, there are 13 points to play for to determine the winner of the 34th Match.
The Continent of Europe go into the second and final day of the St Andrews Trophy at Royal Porthcawl Golf Club with a 7-5 advantage over Great Britain & Ireland. However, there are 13 points to play for to determine the winner of the 34th Match.
The Continent of Europe team got off to a near perfect start by taking the morning foursomes session 3-1, only for GB&I to fight back in the eight singles to halve the session 4-4.
Scotland’s Connor Graham and Welshman James Ashfield, teammates on last year’s Walker Cup team, was the only GB&I pair to win a foursomes match. They defeated Amateur Champion Jacob Skov Olesen of Denmark and France’s Bastien Amat 6&4.
The Continent of Europe then reeled of three straight wins, culminating with the Spanish pair of Luis Masaveu Roncal and Pablo Ereno Perez defeating English duo Jack Bigham and Sebastien Cave 5&4.
Drizzly rain and strong sea winds greeted the best amateurs from GB&I and Continental Europe, conditions that should have suited the home team. The nine-man Continent of Europe team had other ideas.
“I’m proud of my team to play so well in conditions like these,” said Spain’s Carlos de Corral, Continent of Europe captain.
“It was a great challenge for us because we are not used to this kind of weather. It’s also harder for us to do the pairings with players coming from different countries; they don’t play together normally. But my team gelled very well together.”
GB&I fought back in the singles session, with Ashfield, Dominic Clemons and Connor Graham winning the first three matches. With two teams so evenly matched, though, there was always going to be a fight back, and the Continent of Europe won four of the next five. Richard Teder of Estonia had the biggest margin of victory, defeating Scotland’s Gregor Graham 6&5.
At one point early in the singles, it looked like GB&I was going to take the session 5-3 to end the day all square at six points apiece.“The match was so close this afternoon,” De Corral said. “GB&I was beating us in the singles at one stage and then we were lucky to win some of the last matches to get ahead.
“We have a nice two-point advantage, but these two teams are both very strong. The commitment of all of them is very important because these players have an extremely busy schedule with many tournaments to play in the summer, but they want to play in these conditions and to play in this tournament. So, it’s going to be very exciting tomorrow.”
Five players, three from the Continent of Europe and two GB&I members, emerged with perfect two-point days. Spaniard Luis Masaveu Roncal, Germany’s Tim Wiedemeyer and Jerry Ji of The Netherlands all went two for two for the visitors. Ashfield and Connor Graham achieved that feat for GB&I.
The final day consists of another quartet of foursomes followed by all nine players from each team contesting the final singles session.
