Back
EUROPEAN TEAM SHIELD 2015
05/08/2015
The first edition of the ETSC for men amateur golfers organised by the European Golf Association was held during three days starting from Thursday 30th July 2015 at the Pravets Golf Club in Bulgaria.
The Championship became possible after interventions at a couple of AGM’s of the EGA over these last four years which highlighted the plight of golf emerging nations. The ensuing discussions were successful in showing, the Executive and Championship Committees of the EGA, that its smaller affiliated countries were finding it difficult to participate in the normal EGA competitions not just due to the high level of play presented by players from the larger countries but also due to the expenses involved to travel and participate in these competitions. As a consequence the EGA decided to launch the ETSC on a similar format to that of a very successful Balkan Challenge Trophy.
Requiring a team of four amateurs holding citizenship of each respective country, Malta participated with Andy Borg, JJ Micallef, Ruud Critien and John Micallef Stafrace. The other eleven countries that fielded a team for this first edition were Bulgaria; Ukraine; Macedonia; Albania; Romania; Latvia; Croatia; Liechtenstein; Serbia; Greece and Hungary. The format of the championship was a stroke play qualifier on the first day; followed by three match play knockout rounds. In the match play rounds the teams were required to play two singles and one foursomes match with the condition that play continues until a match is won. Two wins out of three determined the team that would proceed to the next round and the eventual winner and final placing of the teams. All the championship was played off scratch.
The Pravets’ course is a relatively young parkland course and is situated around 45 minutes’ drive from Sofia airport. The par 72 course was designed by Peter Harradine and measures 6470 metres from the blue championship tees. Despite the small presence of fully grown trees, the course offered a great test of golf due to its thick rough; strategically placed bunkers and fast speed of the greens. Although the course touches a beautiful lake, natural water hazards do not really come into play except on the first; the fifteenth and the par 3 eighth which has an island green. The longest hole on the course is the par 5 sixteenth at 576 metres and the shortest is the par 3 third at 123 metres. At 370 metres longer than the front nine; the back nine holes are considered more difficult also because of the way that they need to be managed.
Wearing their team unified coral coloured polo shirts and with the best three scores out of four counting for the qualifying first round, Team Malta’s 215 aggregate (-1 for the course) was only the second score returned under par for the course – behind that of Croatia. The 215 consisted of two 71 returns from Andy and Ruud and a 73 from JJ. The players were understandably elated with the team’s performance which easily secured them a place in the knock out phase of the tournament on the following day. With the 1st placed team due to play the 8th; the 2nd team to play the 7th; etc; the draw for the matches threw Croatia vs Latvia; Malta vs Liechtenstein; Greece vs Hungary and Bulgaria vs Serbia.
An overseas match play experience was something totally new for our players and this quickly manifested itself in Malta’s first foursomes match. Ruud and John – who unlike their colleagues were dry of overseas tournament familiarity – found the going very tough and, although they played their hearts out, had to concede an early defeat in the back nine. Andy, bringing up the rear in his singles match, lost the first hole to a birdie when his opponent hit his approach hole on this par 5 within three feet from the pin. Nothing could perhaps have served Andy better to make him even that more determined to bring a win for Malta. After having ‘’dispatched’’ the undersigned to ‘’take care’’ of JJ who was ahead and having trouble to settle down, Andy proceeded to bring and keep the match all square by the ninth, before going birdie, birdie, par, birdie, birdie for a 5&4 win. In reality such a result does not really indicate how strong Andy’s opponent was and how well Andy did actually play to post such a massive win for Malta.
As Andy’s win echoed back to JJ’s match, the latter was on his way to square the match after being four down on the front nine. Against another very strong opponent, JJ’s front nine were an aberration which were soon forgotten as JJ started to play unfaltering golf to win three successive holes; then halving the next three before winning the sixteenth to square the match. JJ’s swing did not abandon him on the par 3 seventeenth and he smacked his tee shot within a safe putting distance. His opponent found the back of the green. The chip back hit the hole and drifted pass for a par. JJ’s putt then agonisingly slipped by the hole by millimetres. On the eighteenth, JJ smacked his drive down the middle whilst his opponent fell short due to a hook. An amazing three wood which whizzed in the air and flew over the flag elicited cries of joy from his friends and with both players returning par for the hole, the game had to proceed to a sudden play off – as far as we understand the only match that extended beyond the eighteenth hole throughout the tournament.
Back on the first hole, JJ third shot on this par 5 landed about four feet beyond the hole for an uphill putt and was looking very good. His opponent’s third shot found the back apron again and another well-judged chip from the Liechtenstein player almost saw the ball drop in the hole. In normal circumstances, JJ’s putt would have dropped in. Instead the ball decided that it had not had enough and lipped out to hang a couple of centimetres away from the hole. As Team Malta’s shoulders slummed, Liechtenstein felt that they had regained an advantage. Indeed on the second play-off hole, JJ found the fairway bunker and then the greenside bunker. JJ’s perfectly executed bunker shot sailed over the flag and dropped a few feet beyond and exactly on the downward line towards the flag. To everyone’s surprise the ball decided to hug the grass and did not move an inch. The resultant bogey was not sufficient and Malta was knocked out at this quarter final stage.
It would be amiss of me not to explain that the longer write up of this singles match is only due to the fact that these holes were those that were most watched by all the team and perhaps even by the officials precisely because of its importance in the knock out stages and because of the interest it generated due to the turn around and the subsequent play off. Nothing should take away the excellent play that was witnessed from all our players in all the other games ahead and subsequent to this match but I suppose we were all conscious and perhaps are wondering still the ‘’what if’’ scenario that would have placed Malta instead of Liechtenstein in the semi-final round against Greece – the eventual winner of this championship.
The start of this first day was delayed by over two hours because of lightning which combined with the delay caused by the play-off meant that our players had less than 45 minutes to re-group their emotions and find the strength to get back on the first tee at 16:40 hours to face Hungary for determining the 5th to 8th place positions.
JJ and John were paired for the foursomes match and were sharing the spoils with their opponents until the fifteenth when, with their match all square, the players were requested to consider the match halved and abandon the course. This did not go down well with the two player pairs as they all wanted to see the match end with a result. However the tournament officials insisted that they wanted them off the course as it was futile to continue due to the fact that Malta had just won the other two single matches.
Actually Andy and Ruud almost finished their Hungarian counterparts at an identical time albeit on different holes. Andy brushed off his gregarious opponent on the par 3 thirteenth with a birdie putt whilst Ruud won on the fifteenth as the foursomes players were walking towards their tee shots just behind him.
Croatia had arguably the best team in the tournament (three of their players had placed in the top eight positions in the stroke play event and their fourth placed tied eleventh) but we all know that match play requires a different kind of mind set. Indeed Croatia suffered a similar fate to that of Malta and lost their first match play games to Latvia. They then won their second set of matches against Serbia which placed them to play against Malta on the final day for the tournament for 5th place.
John again strove to try his best but his opponent had other ideas and dismissed John’s golf with some very confident play. The luck of the “draw” put Andy to play against the best player from Croatia which spurred our player to turn up on the first tee even more resolute. Both players played brilliant golf but Andy managed to pip his opponent to win it on the 17th with a birdie putt. I stand to be corrected but I believe that Andy had played -5 for the course to his opponent’s -4 over these 17 holes.
With JJ and Ruud having bungled the 16th hole allowing the opponents to level the match and with the match remaining all square on the eighteenth tee, Croatia were looking confident for a win. But our players finished the hole with a great putt for par whilst the Croatians, putting last, missed theirs for a bogey.
Two matches out of three won, thus gave Malta a very credible 5th place. What if?
William Beck
4th August 2015