Team Europe has won the Patsy Hankins trophy against Asia-Pacific for the very first time. The 12 singles of Saturday saw the home team cruise to victory, outscoring Asia-Pacific by four points on the day.

After starting the day with a two-point advantage, the European squad set itself on the right path early-on. Victory number one came as soon as the 14th green by Spain’s Rocio Tejedo, beating Shannon Tan from Singapore.

Her two Swedish partners Meja Örtengren and Kajsa Arwefjall secured two more full points for the home team, coming 2,5 points away from raising the trophy for the first time.

Asia-Pacific powered its way to victories nonetheless, with Korea’s Minsol Kim and Yeji Park bringing two quick points to the side. But Europe managed to take the lead in enough of the remaining matches to avoid a nerve-wracking scenario down the stretch.

Germany’s Helen Briem made the outcome almost inevitable, by winning match 6 over Mizuki Hashimoto, 3&2. The main issue of the final minutes turned out to be the name of the player who would hit the winning putt. This contest was a close one indeed, with England’s Patience Rhodes on the 16th, and Germany’s Celina Sattelkau on the 18th simultaneously closing out their matches.

But both outcomes meant that the celebrations could begin for team Europe.

The 2023 Patsy Hankins Trophy will go down as the first win for Europe since the start of the matches in 2016, with a final score of 19 to 13.