1997 European Amateur Team Championship
# 1997 European Amateur Team Championship

The 1997 European Amateur Team Championship took place 25–29 June at Portmarnock Golf Club in Portmarnock, County Dublin, 10 kilometres north-east of the city center of Dublin, Ireland. It was the 20th men's golf European Amateur Team Championship.

## Venue

There were strong winds on the links course during the tournament.

## Format

Each team consisted of six players, playing two rounds of an opening stroke-play qualifying competition over two days, counting the five best scores each day for each team.

The eight best teams formed flight A, in knock-out match-play over the next three days. The teams were seeded based on their positions after the stroke play. The first placed team were drawn to play the quarter-final against the eight placed team, the second against the seventh, the third against the sixth and the fourth against the fifth. Teams were allowed to use six players during the team matches, selecting four of them in the two morning foursome games and five players in to the afternoon single games. Games all square at the 18th hole were declared halved, if the team match was already decided.

The eight teams placed 9–16 in the qualification stroke-play formed flight B and the six teams placed 17–22 formed flight C, to play similar knock-out play, with one foursome game and four single games in each match, to decide their final positions.

## Teams

A record number of 22 nation teams contested the event. Teams representing Croatia and Slovakia both took part in the championship for the first time. Each team consisted of six players.

Players in the leading teams

| Country | Players |
| - | - |
| Denmark | Søren Hansen, Klaus Molholm, Christian Kjaergaard, Lars Storm, Mads Vibe-Hastrup, Peter Thomsen |
| England | Matthew Blackey, Matt Carver, Justin Rose, Shaun Webster, Robert Wiggins, Gary Wolstenholme |
| France | Olivier David, Grégory Havret, François Illouz, Georges Plumet, Christophe Ravetto, Fabrice Stolear |
| Germany | Florian Bruhns, Tobias Dier, Felix Lubenau, Philip Neels, Benjamin Schlichting, Stephan Wittkop, |
| Iceland | Kristinn Bjarnarsson, Thorsteinn Hallgrimsson, Örn Aevar Hjartarsson, Thordur Olafsson, Björgvin Sigurbergsson, Björgvin Thorstensson |
| Ireland | Richard Coughlan, Jody Fanagan, Noel Fox, Peter Lawrie, Garth McGimpsey, Keith Nolan |
| Netherlands | Marten van den Berg, Rutger Buschow, Niels Kraay, Maarten Lafeber, Ralph Miller, Vincent Rotenburg |
| Scotland | Michael Brooks, Alastair Forsyth, Barclay Howard, Graham Rankin, Craig Watson, Steven Young |
| Spain | Juan Carlos Agüero, Sergio García, José Manuel Lara, Raúl Quirós, Oscar Sanchez, Juan Vizcaya |
| Sweden | Joachim Bäckström, Mattias Eliasson, Peter Hanson, Daniel Olsson, Henrik Stenson, Jonas Torines |
| Wales | Jamie Donaldson, Nigel Edwards, David Park, Mark Smith, Yestin Taylor, Mark Pilkington |

Other participating teams

* Country
* Austria
* Belgium
* Croatia
* Czech Republic
* Estonia
* Finland
* Italy
* Norway
* Portugal
* Slovakia
* Switzerland

## Winners

The host nation Ireland won the opening 36-hole competition, with a 39-over-par score of 759, 24 strokes ahead of defending champions Scotland on 2nd place, while the difference between the 2nd and 8th placed teams were 17 strokes. Four of the Irish players finished within the top nine individually. For the first time since 1975, eight-time-winners England, with future professional major-winner Justin Rose in the team, did not make it to the quarter-finals, finishing ninth.

There was no official award for the lowest individual score, but individual leader was Keith Nolan, Ireland, with a 7-over-par score of 149, one stroke ahead of fellow country man Noel Fox.

In the windy conditions on the second day of the stroke-play competition, 109 players in the 132-man-field failed to broke 80, including future European Tour winners Henrik Stenson, Søren Hansen, Sergio Garcia, Maarten Lafeber, Peter Hanson, Grégory Havret, Jamie Donaldson and Martin Wiegele.

Team Spain won the gold medal, earning their first title, beating defending champions team Scotland in the final 4.5–2.5.

Host nation Ireland earned the bronze on third place, after beating Sweden 5.5–1.5 in the bronze match.

## Results

Qualification round

| Place | Country | Score | To par |
| - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Ireland | 375-384=759 | +39 |
| 2 | Scotland | 380-403=783 | +63 |
| 3 | Sweden | 387-397=784 | +64 |
| 4 | Spain | 387-398=785 | +65 |
| 5 | Germany | 385-408=793 | +73 |
| 6 | Denmark | 391-403=794 | +74 |
| 7 | Iceland | 396-402=798 | +78 |
| 8 | Netherlands | 398-402=800 | +80 |
| 9 | England | 397-406=803 | +83 |
| T10 | Wales * | 400-404=804 | +84 |
| T10 | France | 392-412=804 | +84 |
| 12 | Finland | 393-414=807 | +87 |
| 13 | Italy | 395-413=808 | +88 |
| 14 | Belgium | 401-410=811 | +91 |
| 15 | Norway | 402-411=813 | +93 |
| 16 | Austria | 407-426=833 | +113 |
| 17 | Switzerland | 414-420=834 | +114 |
| 18 | Portugal | 421-432=853 | +133 |
| 19 | Czech Republic | 441-446=887 | +167 |
| 20 | Estonia | 465-468=933 | +213 |
| 21 | Croatia | 490-505=995 | +275 |
| 22 | Slovakia | 516-539=1055 | +335 |
| Place | Player | Country | Score | To par |
| 1 | Keith Nolan | Ireland | 70-79=149 | +5 |
| 2 | Noel Fox | Ireland | 76-74=150 | +6 |
| T3 | Peter Lawrie | Ireland | 75-76=151 | +7 |
| T3 | Raul Quiros | Spain | 75-76=151 | +7 |
| T5 | Tobias Dier | Germany | 77-77=154 | +10 |
| T5 | Alastair Forsyth | Scotland | 75-79=154 | +10 |
| T5 | Mikko Manerus | Finland | 74-80=154 | +10 |
| T5 | Garth McGimpsey | Ireland | 78-76=154 | +10 |
| T5 | Jonas Torines | Sweden | 77-77=154 | +10 |

Flight A

| Quarter finals | Quarter finals | Semi finals | Semi finals | Final | Final |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Scotland | 5.5 | | |
| Iceland | 1.5 | | |
| Iceland | 1.5 | Scotland | 4.5 |
| | | Sweden | 2.5 |
| Sweden | 5 | Sweden | 2.5 |
| Denmark | 2 | | | | |
| Denmark | 2 | | | Spain | 4.5 |
| | | | | Scotland | 2.5 |
| Spain | 4.5 | | | Scotland | 2.5 |
| Germany | 2.5 | | | | |
| Germany | 2.5 | Spain | 4.5 | | |
| | | Ireland | 2.5 | Bronze match | Bronze match |
| Ireland | 6 | Ireland | 2.5 | Bronze match | Bronze match |
| Netherlands | 1 | | | | |
| Netherlands | 1 | | | Ireland | 5.5 |
| | | | | Sweden | 1.5 |
| Elimination matches | Elimination matches | Match for 5th place | Match for 5th place |
| Denmark | 4.5 |
| Iceland | 2.5 | | |
| Iceland | 2.5 | Netherlands | 4 |
| | | Denmark | 3 |
| Netherlands | 5.5 | Denmark | 3 |
| Germany | 1.5 | | |
| Germany | 1.5 | Match for 7th place | Match for 7th place |
| | | Germany | 5 |
| | | Iceland | 2 |
| Spain | Scotland |
| 4.5 | 2.5 |
| S. Garcia / O. Sanchez 3 & 2 | G. Rankin / C. Watson |
| J.M. Lara / R. Quiros | B. Howard / S. Young 2 & 1 |
| Sergio Garcia 7 & 6 | Steven Young |
| Oscar Sanchez AS * | Graham Rankin AS * |
| Juan Carlos Aguero 1 hole | Michael Brooks |
| Raul Quiros 1 hole | Alastair Forsyth |
| José Manuel Lara 2 & 1 | Craig Watson |

Flight B

| England | Austria |
| - | - |
| 4 | 1 |
| Finland | Italy |
| 3 | 2 |
| France | Belgium |
| 4 | 1 |
| Wales | Norway |
| 5 | 0 |
| France | Wales |
| 4 | 1 |
| England | Finland |
| 4 | 1 |
| Norway | Belgium |
| 3 | 2 |
| Austria | Italy |
| 3.5 | 1.5 |
| Belgium | Italy |
| 3 | 2 |
| Norway | Austria |
| 3 | 2 |
| Wales | Finland |
| 3 | 2 |
| France | England |
| 4 | 1 |

Flight C

First round elimination matches

| Estonia | Croatia |
| - | - |
| 4 | 1 |
| Czech Republic | Slovakia |
| 5 | 0 |

Second round elimination matches

| Switzerland | Estonia |
| - | - |
| 4.5 | 0.5 |
| Portugal | Czech Republic |
| 5 | 0 |

Match for 21st place

| Croatia | Slovakia |
| - | - |
| 5 | 0 |

Match for 19th place

| Czech Republic | Estonia |
| - | - |
| 5 | 0 |

Match for 17th place

| Switzerland | Portugal |
| - | - |
| 3 | 2 |

Final standings

| Place | Country |
| - | - |
| | Spain |
| | Scotland |
| | Ireland |
| 4 | Sweden |
| 5 | Netherlands |
| 6 | Denmark |
| 7 | Germany |
| 8 | Iceland |
| 9 | France |
| 10 | England |
| 11 | Wales |
| 12 | Finland |
| 13 | Norway |
| 14 | Austria |
| 15 | Belgium |
| 16 | Italy |
| 17 | Switzerland |
| 18 | Portugal |
| 19 | Czech Republic |
| 20 | Estonia |
| 21 | Croatia |
| 22 | Slovakia |

Sources:

See also

* Eisenhower Trophy – biennial world amateur team golf championship for men organized by the International Golf Federation.
* European Ladies' Team Championship – European amateur team golf championship for women organised by the European Golf Association.
