EUROPEAN TEAM SHIELD CHAMPIONSHIP 2018

24/07/2018

Team Malta composed of Nicholas Beck, Andy Borg, Ruud Critien and JJ Micallef will be soon on their way to the Riverside Golf Golf Club, just outside Zagreb in Croatia, to participate in the fourth edition of this tournament organised by the European Golf Association.

The European Team Shield Championship was first held in 2015 when Malta achieved fifth place. This was followed by two successive bronze placings in the following years. The players travel to Zagreb with a belief that they can do better this time around. In their way stand twelve other emerging golf countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia and Ukraine.

After a practice round on Tuesday, the tournament starts off on Wednesday with an individual stroke play qualifier. The aggregate of three best gross scores out of four will determine the team’s position for the next rounds with the best eight teams making it to the knockout stages in match play format. The match play rounds will consist of one foursomes match and two individual matches. The team winning two of these three matches will proceed to the next round until the overall winner is determined. All golf will be played off scratch.

The Riverside Golf Club is a par 72 course and 6403 metres in length. The course rating is 73.5 and the slope rating is 129. The birdie book published on the club’s website seems to indicate that water comes into play in most of the holes. http://www.riversidegolf.hr/birdie-book/

Malta’s participation in this tournament is through the kind sponsorship of SportMalta as well as Nike Golf (playing kit) and Bortex Fine Tailoring (official uniform).