Day 3 of the 2024 European Team Championships is complete.
A long day of battle, with foursomes in the morning and singles in the afternoon, yielded much drama as teams fought for places in Friday's semi-finals.
A tough day for Spain, defending champions in the Men's, Ladies', and Girls' Championships, saw them crash out of all three. The most disappointing of which will be the Ladies'. The Spanish team, the reigning champions, favourites on paper, number-one seeds and hosts, were upset by Germany in the quarter-finals in Madrid.
On the other side of the coin, a splendid day for Germany saw them advance to the semi-finals in all four European-titled events. As the only country with four teams still able to win gold, Germany will look to become the first nation ever to win all four team championships in the same year.
Estonia carried on their dream run in the men's championship in Italy. Delighted after securing a Flight A spot for the first time in the event's history on Wednesday, Estonia went 2-0 down in the foursomes to France. An incredible recovery in the afternoon, which finished with a birdie to win the decisive match on the 20th hole, kept the Estonian party well and truly alive as they advance to the semi-finals. A strong-as-always Swedish team awaits them, with a spot in the championship match on the line on Friday at Royal Park I Roveri.
A day of upsets in Sweden at the Girls' Team Championship saw three out of four lower-seeded teams in Flight A progress to the final-four at Göteborgs Golf Klubb. Among them was Italy, who defeated number-one seeds, Spain in a repeat of last year's final.
The Boys' Team Championship had yet another weather delay on Thursday leading to a late finish at Diamound Country Club, with one quarter-final still undecided. Number-one seeds France comfortably swept aside Switzerland and set up a mouthwatering tie with Germany in Friday's semi-finals.
Defending champions, Sweden knocked out the hosts in Austria, and will face the winner of England v Finland, to be finished on Friday morning.
EUROPEAN GIRLS' TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP, SWEDEN
Day 3 of the European Girls’ Team Championship turned out to be full of upsets and dramatic scenarios, as the quarter-finals saw three teams between seeds 5 and 8 muscle their way through.
The most spectacular result occurred between stroke play leaders Spain, and 8th spot Italy. The latter put the pressure on the defending champions straight off the gate, with a quick win in the second morning foursome. The top match’s outcome took no less than 20 holes to be known, but yet again, Italy came out victorious thanks to Paris Appendino and Ginevra Coppa.
Spain had its back firmly against the wall, needing four points out of five in the afternoon singles. Rocio Tejedo and Nagore Martinez secured the first points of the day for the Spaniards, but Paris Appendino was able to bring Italy one point away from victory. The winning point was scored by Guia Vittoria Acutis, winning her match against Martina Navarro on the 18th green.
England emerged as the only top-4 team able to qualify for the semi-finals. After taking a two-point advantage over Denmark through the morning foursomes, the English squad kept pushing in the afternoon singles, securing a 5-2 victory to punch its ticket to a semi-final against Italy.
The morning session also came to a close with a one-sided score between Sweden and Germany. But this time, with the lowest seed on top. The Germans struck first in the foursomes, and avoided a stressful afternoon, by winning the first two singles, putting and end to the Swedish crowd’s hopes for a medal.
The match between France and Belgium was the only one where the morning session resulted in a tied score. But it took no less than 19 holes to Camille Min-Gaultier and Alice Kong to win the top match, after Belgium had drawn first blood.
The contest remained tight in the afternoon singles, where both teams exchanged victories, making the duel between France’s Louise Uma Landgraf and Belgium’s Sixtine de Cordes the decisive one.
1 down through 16 holes, Sixtine de Cordes squared the match with a brilliant birdie on 17. Landgraf’s struggles on the final hole gave her two putts to win the match, which she handled perfectly.
EUROPEAN BOYS' TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP, AUSTRIA
Sweden was the expected hurdle for the Austrian team on the first day of match play at the Diamond Country Club. Although the score was still 1-1 after the two foursomes in the morning, the Swedes left no doubt in the singles that they had come to Austria to defend their 2023 title.
The pendulum swung against Austria on hole 17 of the foursomes: Point 1 was wrapped up early with 4&2 thanks to Austin/Puregger against Berg/Tolf, when Steinwender/Csöngei had the chance to go 1 up with a birdie on hole 17 and ensure a second point. The birdie turned into a three-putt bogey and instead of Austria, Sweden was suddenly 1 up. So they went into the singles "only" 1 up, which turned into a demonstration of power by the Swedes.
One player stood out from the extremely strong Swedish team performance: Neo Berg scored no fewer than eight (!) birdies on his way to a 7&6 victory over the Austrian Stephan Csöngei, who is almost 2 years younger, six of them in a row from hole 2.
Things were still looking good for Tyrolean Tobias Bauer at the start. He was quickly 2 up at the start of the round, but in the end the best Austrian from the qualifying round lost out with 4&2.
In the end there was half a point for Austria because the match between the Swede Daniel Tolf and Fabio Steinwender was already meaningless.
While France (5.5 to 1.5 against Switzerland) confidently reached the semi-finals, Germany and the Netherlands fought an emotional match for a semi-final place.
Two of the matches went down to the 20th hole, with Leopold Hess deciding one in favour of Germany with a great birdie putt on the 18th hole.
The fourth semi-final team, as well as Austria's opponent in the match for places 5 to 8, will not be determined until Friday morning: The duel between Finland and England was cancelled due to darkness. The winner of this pairing will face Sweden in the semi-finals, while the loser will take on the Austrian team.
The match for relegation
With Ireland, Spain, Iceland and Italy, well-known golfing nations are fighting for relegation at the EBTC 2024 at the Diamond Country Club after their first-round-loss to Denmark, Norway, Czech Republic and Wales.
More to follow...