England men’s qua et claim European Nations Championship

Josh Berry, Arron Edwards-Hill, John Gough and Dylan Shaw-Radford combined to steer England to a narrow victory in the European Nations Championship held at Sotogrande in Spain.

After an even par nal round, England nished with an 872 total (+8) to beat Italy by three shots, with Spain nishing a further three shots back in third. Scotland were fourth (+16), Ireland 13th (+47), and Wales 14th (+48) in the 17-team event.

Gough nished second in the individual event, shooting rounds of 67, 77, 73 and 69 to nish on two under par, but lost out on countback to Sweden’s Albert Hansson. Radford nished 15th on 8 over, Betry was tied 19th on +9, and Hill was tied 24th on +10.

A chat with England Golf’s Men’s Squad Manager Gareth Jenkins proved productive for Cumbria’s Will Coxon, who won the Hampshire Salver at Blackmoor GC.

The University of Stirling student made a slow start at Blackmoor – the event is jointly held with North Hants – but three successive 67s gave him the title by two shots from Ben Quinney (Kings Hill), Joe Harvey (The Kendleshire) and Zach Little (West Herts).

Coxon is hoping his latest victory will push his name to the front of selectors’ minds ahead of this year’s Walker Cup, which is being held at St Andrews in August, He said: “I had a Zoom call with Gareth Jenkins and he said Hampshire Salver is a good tournament to play in in terms of getting noticed regarding selection for di erent teams. It was the rst time I had played in it and it was a nice boost to get the win.”

The Hampshire Salver is made up of the Selborne Salver (Blackmoor) and Hampshire Hog (North Hants) and Coxon’s opening 75 on Saturday morning left him out of contention with Little taking the Selborne Salver after a play-o with Liphook’s Darren Walkley.

The following day the action moved to North Hants and Coxon and Quinney both opened with 67s to lead by one and both repeated their e orts after lunch although the Carus Green player missed a three-foot par putt to win The Hog.

The duo then went into extra time and Quinney executed a brilliant up and down at the 10th to extend the tournament, but missed the same 3-footer Coxon had missed less than an hour earlier to hand the title to his opponent.