LONDON - Sept. 29, 2004 --The past three months have seen unprecedented success for England’s amateur national teams and individual players. England were outright winners in the European Boys Team Championships and both the boys and men's Home Internationals. Individual players won the European Amateur Championship and the Chiberta Grand Prix. Five out of nine players in the victorious GB and Ireland team, who took the St Andrews Trophy, were England golfers and Oliver Fisher played for the successful Junior Ryder Cup team.
The Ryder Cup has raised the country’s interest in golf once again and English amateur success was also reflected here. Four of Europe’s team players, Luke Donald, David Howell, Paul Casey and Lee Westwood came through the EGU’s coaching program. A further player, Colin Montgomerie, although now officially considered a Scottish player, benefited from the English county training programme in Yorkshire.
Winners European Boys Team Championships - England beat Spain in a nail biting finish at the Kymen Golf Club, Finland on 11th July with Matthew Baldwin taking the top individual player accolade.
Runner Up European Youths Team - England were extremely close runners up in the European Youths Championships on 10th July – the final score was only decided on the last hole with Scotland just beating England to victory
Winners Mens Home Internationals - England evened the score with Scotland in September when they won the Home Internationals at Prestwick. On the last day England’s James Heath led the way with the first match win of the day. Five more match victories by team players secured the final top prize.
Winners Boys Home Internationals - England sealed their seventh victory in a row with a resounding last day defeat of Scotland by 11½ to 3½ at Portmarnock, Ireland.
Winner and Runner Up European Amateur Championships - England players secured both first and second places at the European Amateur in Sweden on 21st August. Matthew Richardson took the top prize with a score of 15 under for the championship and now qualifies for a place in the Open Championship in 2005. He was closely followed by Gary Lockerbie who finished at 14 under.
Winner Chiberta Grand Prix - James Crampton became the first British winner of the event when he won the Chiberta Grand Prix in Biarritz entering a closing score of 64, one shot outside the course record
Winners St Andrews Trophy - England provided five of the nine players for the GB and Ireland team that faced Europe on 28th August at Nairn Golf Club in the St Andrews Links Trophy and contributed to the biggest winning margin seen at the tournament since 1980. James Heath, Sam Osborne and Matthew Richardson won all of their matches during the tournament.
Winners Jacque Leglise Trophy - Three of the nine players from the successful boys GB and Ireland Team were from England and contributed to the comfortable win that was achieved over the European boys’ team.
Winners Junior Ryder Cup - Even before a ball was played at Oakland Hills, Europe's Ryder Cup team were given a boost when their junior equivalents won the Junior Ryder Cup 8½ to 3½ at Westfield Group Country Club, Ohio. English player Oliver Fisher contributed to the victory by winning both of his matches.
The English Golf Union (EGU) has served as the governing body of male amateur golf in England since it was founded in 1924.
Responsible for the training of England’s top amateur golfers the EGU organises all the major English amateur championships. Based at the National Golf Centre in Woodhall Spa, the EGU is the largest sports governing body in England looking after the interests of over 1,900 golf clubs and 740,000 club members. The EGU also works to increase the continued interest and participation in golf through their golf development initiative ‘Get into Golf’ and their Associate Membership Programme.
