From July 27-30, 2016, the European Team Shield Championship was held at Pannonia Golf & Country Club in Hungary. The Championship, which followed-on from the former Balkan Challenge Trophy, was launched by the EGA in 2015 in order to further national team development in countries not often able to send teams to elite golf events.
Twelve four-player teams from Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Malta, Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine played in the men’s event. For the first time, a ladies’ equivalent championship was played in conjunction with the men’s, with nine teams competing: Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine. The format was the same as for the men’s: one round of stroke play followed by three rounds of match play.
In the European Men’s Team Shield Championship (EMTSC), Serbia were crowned champions after defeating Croatia in a tense final, 2-1. Croatia’s Adam Brnic and Marko Stepinac recorded the first point by beating Serbia’s Marko Jokic and Ranko Helc 4&3 in the foursome match. However, Serbia went on to secure the two deciding points with a 6&5 victory by Mihailo Dimitrijevic over Ivan Vucemil and Braniir Gudelj’s 2&1 win over Luka Karaula in the following single matches. Before clinching victory against Croatia in the final, Serbia beat Turkey 2-1 in the quarter-final and Malta 3-0 in the semi-final.
Malta secured the bronze medal by defeating Liechtenstein 3-0.
For complete results click here.
Turkey proved too strong for their competitors in the inaugural European Ladies’ Team Shield Championship (ELTSC). As top qualifier, seven shots ahead of Latvia, Turkey were allocated the first bye into the semi-final, where they defeated Serbia 3-0. In the final, Latvia took the early lead with a clear 5&4 win in the foursome match by Anna Marska and Anna Diana Svanka over Turkey’s Begum Yilmaz and Tugce Erden. Damla Bilgic halved the standing by defeating Latvia’s Marija Jucmane 5&4 and the match was decided for Turkey by Sena Ersoy’s 2&1 victory over Linda Dobele.
Bulgaria beat Serbia 2-1 to take the bronze medal.
For complete results click here.
As last year, the EGA, PGAs of Europe and The R&A joined forces to support participating nations in developing golf in their countries. Working in partnership with The R&A, as part of their ‘Working for Golf’ programme, a team of four top professionals from the PGAs of Europe shadowed and mentored team coaches and delivered coaching sessions to competitors offering various areas of guidance to the players and instructors alike. The R&A provided two highly-experienced referees who delivered a rules clinic for players and officials.