The final two players of the 2023 Continent of Europe Jacques Léglise Trophy Team have been confirmed.
Following seven selections previously announced, Spanish players, Jorge Siyuan Hao and Marcel Fonseca Aguilar will complete the Continent of Europe team set to face Great Britain & Ireland at Golf de Chantilly later this week.
Jorge Hao will make his second conseuctive appearance for the Continent of Europe team, after helping his side to victory at Blairgowrie in 2022. Marcel Fonseca earned his selection after a strong performance at the Boys' Amateur Championship last week. The Spaniard reached the quarter-finals, but would ultimately lose to the eventual champion, Kris Kim (ENG).
First played in 1958, the Jacques Léglise Trophy is an annual match between the best 18-and-under male amateur players from Great Britain & Ireland (GB&I) and the Continent of Europe.
Selection to play in the match recognizes the players’ outstanding achievements in their young amateur careers.
Team Continent of Europe will take on GB&I at Chantilly, France in the 55th edition on Friday and Satuday of this week (25 and 26 August).
THE SELECTIONS:
Louis Anceaux (FRA)
Filip Fahlberg-Johnsson (SWE)
Marcel Fonseca Aguilar (ESP)
Jorge Siyuan Hao (ESP)
Lev Grinberg (UKR)
Simon Hovdal (SWE)
Hugo Le Goff (FRA)
Peer Wernicke (GER)
Tim Wiedemeyer (GER)
The team will be captained by Joachim Fourquet. A former French international and Jacques Léglise Trophy player himself, Fourquet will look to captain the team to victory for a record-extending fourth straight time.
Jorge Siyuan Hao (ESP) joins Tim Wiedemeyer (GER) as the only two players on the team to have previously represented the Continent of Europe. The German will have the chance to join an exclusive list of players to have won the match three times, while all seven other selections will be making their first appearance in the contest at Chantilly later this month, including recenty confirmed Marcel Fonseca Aguilar.
Wiedemeyer will be joined by German teammate, Peer Wernicke, who helped his country to the European Boys’ Team Championship title in 2022.
Four of the players, Louis Anceaux (FRA), Hugo Le Goff (FRA), Simon Hovdal (SWE) and Filip Fahlberg-Johnsson (SWE) all featured in the final of this year’s European Boys’ Team Championship in Geneva, where they faced each other in the opening foursomes match. The French pair defeated the latter two for the first point of the day, but it was the Swedes who went home with the gold medals. All four will compete under the same flag against Great Britain & Ireland in two weeks’ time.
15-year-old Lev Grinberg (UKR), who famously became the second youngest player to make the cut in a DP World Tour event last year, will become the first golfer from Ukraine to ever compete in the match.
The players will follow in the footsteps of some of Europe’s greatest golfing stars, including José María Olazábal, Thomas Bjorn, Sergio Garcia, Luke Donald, Henrik Stenson, Justin Rose, Jon Rahm, Tommy Fleetwood and Viktor Hovland, who all formerly competed in the match.
The Continent of Europe’s win at Blairgowrie, Scotland last year secured a third straight victory in the contest, a first for the team in the 65-year history of the Jacques Léglise Trophy.
With a record-extending fourth-straight victory on the line this year, the Continental side will look to take inspiration from the fact that the home side came out 16-8 winners the last time the Jacques Léglise Trophy was played at Chantilly in 2001. Rafael Cabrera-Bello (ESP) featured on the Continent of Europe team that year, as did captain, Joachim Fourquet (FRA).
ABOUT THE JACQUES LÉGLISE TROPHY
The Jacques Léglise Trophy is an annual boys match played between nine-player teams from the Continent of Europe and Great Britain & Ireland.
A match between the two sides was first played in 1958, although it was dominated by Great Britain & Ireland to such an extent that it was discontinued in 1966. The contest was rejuvenated in 1977 when Jean-Louis Dupont presented a trophy in memory of Jacques Léglise, giving the match its name.
Jacques Léglise was a renowned French amateur player, champion and captain and also served both the EGA and the French Golf Federation as President.
The match takes places over two days, with four foursomes matches on both mornings, eight singles matches on the afternoon of the first day, and nine singles matches on the afternoon of the second day. With 25 total points on offer, 13 points are needed to guarantee victory.
The Continent of Europe team is selected by the EGA, while the GB&I side is selected by The R&A.
