Newly crowned champion Georgia Hall and Laura Davies will lead Britain’s charge for medals in the women’s golf team competition at the Gleneagles PGA Centenary Course from 8-12 August.
Hall, 22, will be travelling to the Perthshire venue on the back of an outstanding victory in the Ricoh Women’s British Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes at the weekend, her first major title.
Her partner at Gleneagles will be the evergreen Davies, who notched her 85th career title when she won the first US Senior Women’s Open in Chicago in mid-July.
The in-form Brits have a mutual admiration. Hall was inspired by her 54-year-old compatriot when she was growing up and Davies has seen her young partner flourish in recent years.
“I was doing TV commentary at The Solheim Cup last year and was very impressed with Georgia’s performance,” Davies said. “She is an excellent match play golfer and that will stand us in good stead in these European championships.”
Hall admits she will find great reassurance from playing alongside her golfing idol. “When I heard I was to partner Laura I knew straight away we would be a good team,” she said. “With Laura’s help, I know I will feel more calm and relaxed.”
The Solheim Cup will be staged at the PGA Centenary Course next year, and European captain Catriona Matthew will be keeping one eye on potential selections for her team to face the USA. She will partner Holly Clyburn playing for GBR in this week’s women’s team championship.
France, Germany and Iceland will be the main threats to Britain in the women’s event.
The inaugural European Golf Team Championships will offer three gold medals: in men’s and women’s team events, and in a revolutionary mixed team event.
Britain lead the way with a maximum representation of six teams, three in each of the men’s and women’s events.
Players will represent their countries in 16 teams of two players competing in the men’s and women’s tournaments, before combining to form teams of four (two men and two women) in the mixed team championship.
The first stages of the men’s and women’s events will be decided by groups of four teams playing in a round-robin. The top teams go through to the knockout semifinals and final stages. They will be played in a match play format, and the mixed event will be stroke play.
Qualification has been via the European points tables for men and women, based on ranking points earned from tournaments between 10 July 2017 and 9 July 2018, with a maximum of three teams representing any one nation in each event.
The group stages will be seeded and Britain will again have a powerful line-up in the men’s event. Their leading pairing of Callum Shinkwin and Lee Slattery are the top European scorers outside of those playing in the US PGA Championship from 9-12 August.
They will be the top seeds in group A with Spain, Italy and Portugal the main challengers in the other groups.
Click here for the full schedule and live scoring. Live streaming will be available to watch from Friday to Sunday.
