Seniors claim second European Men's Team Title for Scotland in 2016

Scotland have won the European Senior Men’s Team Championship at Diners G&CC Ljubljana in Slovenia.

The Scots beat Germany in the final 3.5-1.5.
David Gardner and Malcolm Reid secured the first point for Scotland in the foursomes against Veit Pagel and Ekkehart Schieffer, before Graham Bell and Nick Robson clinched victory with their wins in the singles against Martin Birkholz and Thomas Krieger respectively. Christoph Stadler secured one point for Germany against Ronnie Clark and the match Karlheinz Noldt versus Ian Brotherston was halved.

The Scottish team’s playing captain, David Gardner, said: “For me, following on from the men’s team winning their European title earlier in the year, it was a target for us to win and keep Scotland’s position as a major player in amateur golf.”

The Irish dominance, after victories in the previous three years, looked set to continue in 2016 as they qualified in top spot from the stroke play qualification. In the match play phase, however, Ireland suffered a 2-3 defeat by Italy in the quarter-final to end their hopes for a fourth gold early on.

Scotland cruised through their quarter-final against France 4-1, winning three and halving two of their matches. The semi-final saw them up against England, and despite loosing the opening foursomes match, three singles victories saw them through to the final against Germany, by 3.5-1.5.

On the way to their silver medal, Germany beat Sweden 3-2 in the quarter-final and Italy 3.5-1.5 in the semi-final.

England took home the bronze medal after overcoming Italy 3-2 in the match for third place.