The final day of the European Boys Team Championship at the
Diamond Country Club near Vienna went off without a thunderstorm
interrupting play. Title favourites France clearly beat England 3.5 to
1.5, Germany missed out on a medal against Sweden and Austria
was clearly defeated by its neighbours from Switzerland in the duel
for fifth place.
„Allez les bleues” was the final cry at the Diamond
Country Club as Team France celebrated victory at the Jean-Louis
Dupont Trophy for the fifth time. France beat England by a clear 3.5 to
1.5 points in the end. The duel between the stars of this year's European
Boys Team Championship Hugo Le Goff (FRA) and Daniel Hayes (ENG)
was a decisive factor, with the Frenchman winning 2&1 in the last few
metres. The English talent Hayes was ahead at the start and was quickly
2 up before the pendulum swung in favour of the Frenchman Le Goff on
the back nine.
The final decision in France's favour came in match 4, which Oscar
Couilleau won 2&1 against Oscar Lent (ENG), leaving Team France, led
by DP European Tour pros Gregory Havret and Jean-Francois Lucquin,
to celebrate. "It was an incredible feeling when I sank the decisive putt.
It's really impossible to describe what goes through your head", said
Couilleau.
On the other side of the coin, the Englishmen are suitably dejected.
"We're all extremely disappointed," said Daniel Hayes, who played the
best round of the tournament with 65 strokes and added: "I can only talk
about my round and I was already a bit tired because the days were
extremely challenging due to the heat. We both played well and in the
end Hugo had the better end for himself."
Sweden wins the bronze medal duel against Germany
The bronze medal at this year's E BTC at the Diamond Country Club
goes to Sweden - the team led by the talented Neo Berg defeated
Germany relatively easily 4 to 1.
"The fact that we won the bronze medal is a great success. The French
and the English were simply too strong this week. We also started with a
completely new team, only Neo Berg was part of the team that won the
title last year. It was a close match against Germany, even if the result
suggests otherwise," says Martin Olsson from the Swedish coaching
staff.
The captain of the German team, Herbert Forster, has a similar view:
"We were close to a medal, the Swedes could have been beaten. It was
a match at a very high level and our lads deserved to come third.
Coming fourth twice in a row is tough. But the boys have all taken a step
forward and I'm very proud of the team."
Switzerland wins the match for 5th place against Austria
Both Switzerland and Austria have not made it into the top 8 of the EPTC
very often. This made it all the more emotional for both teams to fight for
their best placing ever. On this day, Switzerland had the better recipe for
success at the Diamond Country Club.
Team Austria seemed a little more exhausted, as they still had to finish
their match against Finland on Saturday morning. Many easy mistakes
crept into the game of the red-white-red boys' national team and chances
to win a hole went unused time and again.
Switzerland looked fresher and played much more aggressively than the
Austrian team and deservedly took fifth place with a 4.5 to 0.5 win over
Austria. Stephan Csöngei scored the only point for Austria.
Surprisingly, Italy, Iceland and Spain were relegated from the first
division!
The host Diamond Country Club top
The golf club received top marks from all nations in all areas: from the
course maintenance to the catering, there was only one hole. Pars pro
toto said Herbert Forster, Coach Team Germany: "The quality was
consistently top. There is nothing you could criticize at Diamond Country
Club."
Even during the rain interruptions, everything from the evacuation plan to
the re-start ran completely smoothly.
"That's the experience we have thanks to the eleven DP World Tour
events and the numerous major international events," summarises
Diamond Country Club President Christian Guzy, who is definitely willing
to host further top-events.
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