England took the opening round lead at Killarney Golf & Fishing Club as the 11-time champions began their quest for another European Amateur Team Championship with an impressive -20 total.
Charlie Forster was the star performer as the Basingstoke golfer carded a superb 65 in the Kerry sunshine.
Hosts Ireland also got off to a solid start as Damien Coyne’s men opened with an -11 total to take a share of third place, with Thomas Higgins (Roscommon) the best of the Irish carding a -4 round of 68.
Stuart Grehan (Co Louth) was given the honour of leading out the Irish team on Tuesday morning as he teed up alongside 2024 Gold Medal winning Swedish golfer Albert Hansson. The Flogas Irish Men’s Amateur Open Champion got the Irish off to a solid start with a 71, to lay a marker down for the rest of the team.
Dundalk golfer, Caolan Rafferty kept that strong start going as he carded a 72 before debutant John Doyle (Fota Island) battled through some early round nerves to sign for an impressive -3 round of 69.
With Ireland climbing the leaderboard, Amateur Championship runner-up, Gavin Tiernan (Co Louth) added to the tally with a 71, before the experienced Matt McClean (Malone) finished with a -2.
It would be Higgins though who would take the bragging rights among the team as a single bogey on the first was quickly corrected, with the Clemson University star carding five birdies in an excellent finish.
“Played pretty solid,” said Higgins.
“Didn’t start off great, bogey on one and then played pretty flawless from there on in. Didn’t make a bogey from there so I was happy with my game and played well and held a few crucial par putts that were good momentum savers.”
Iceland are searching for their first ever win at this event and they began in ideal fashion too as they will take second place overnight. Three of their players, Sveinsson (-5), Heidarsson (-5) and Sigurbrandsson (-4) played their way inside the individual top ten, helping hand their team a -13 opening day start.
With 18 holes of Stroke Play remaining before Match Play takes over on Thursday morning the race is on for each country to take one of the coveted top eight spots, and with England taking the early advantage, Forster and his team are confident of another strong showing tomorrow.
“We have a really good team, all six players, it’s quite nice. I’m sure we are going to be hunting more birdies tomorrow,” said Forster.
“Hopefully we can have another solid day tomorrow and show what we have got in the Match Play. I think we have got a really good team out there this year, so we’ll see what happens.”
View the European Amateur Team Championship scoring here.
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