England name squad for European

team championship at Turin

PRESS RELEASE ISSUED BY ENGLISH GOLF UNION
England have named Brabazon Trophy winner Steve Uzzell and four other members of the team that beat France last month plus recently graduated US college student Charlie Ford to contest the European Men’s Team Championship in Italy next month.
Ford and Uzzell will be joined by Matt Haines, Sam Hutsby, Dale Whitnell and Chris Wood in a bid to regain the title at Royal Park Golf and Country Club in Turin from July 1 to 5.
Uzzell turned in a dazzling performance to win the Brabazon on 19 under par at Trevose, finishing four strokes clear of the field. What made the victory all the more remarkable was that the Yorkshireman had been forced to miss most of the French international with a back injury a few days earlier.
The left-hander from Hull has been a member of Yorkshire’s victorious English county championsship team for the past two years and in 2007 he finished runner-up in the Lee Westwood Trophy and was a semi-finalist in the Yorkshire championship.
Ford, from Leicestershire, who graduated from the University of Tennessee last month, has achieved considerable success in US college golf including victory last year in the Turtle Bay Intercollegiate in Hawaii.
In that event, his 54-hole total of 200 was the lowest in college history. He also finished runner-up in the World University Games in Bangkok. On this side of the Atlantic, Ford won the Midland Qualifying in 2007, was third in the Midland Open Amateur and fourth in the Tillman Trophy.
Haines, from Kent, also made his full England debut against France, which capped a remarkable past couple of years in golf. Last year, he won the McEvoy Trophy and the Carris Trophy, represented England in the European Boys Team Championships and the Boys Home Internationals, and GB&I in the Jacques Leglise Trophy.
He was also a member of the winning four-man team in the Honda International Junior Championship in Japan while his successes have continued this season with victory in the Lytham Trophy and top ten finishes in three more events.
Hutsby, from Hampshire, is another shining talent. A former under 16 and boy international, he won the Spanish Amateur Championship and the Duke of York Young Champions event in 2006 and the St Mellion International last year.
This year, he has claimed victory in the Bernard Darwin Salver, was runner-up in the Welsh Open Stroke Play Championship and recently finished fourth in the St Andrews Links Trophy. Whitnell was the Daily Telegraph Junior Champion in 2006 and the North of England Youth Champion last year.
The Essex teenager was also runner-up in the Sir Henry Cooper Junior Masters, the French Open Stroke Play and the Tillman Trophy in 2007, while he has claimed further successes this year. He reached the semi-finals of the Australian Amateur, was third in the Portuguese Amateur, runner-up to Haines in the Lytham Trophy but tasted victory in the Lagonda Trophy.
Wood, a former Gloucestershire Champion, was another to enjoy a successful 2007. He won the West of England Stroke Play and the Russian Amateur and was runner-up in the South West Championship, the Tillman Trophy and the Gloucestershire Championship.
He was also a quarter finalist in the Amateur Championship, a member of the team that won the inaugural Portugal Nations Cup and ended the year by topping the PING/EGU Order of Merit. His 2008 successes include victory in the Welsh Open Stroke Play, fourth place in the Lytham Trophy while he was a member of the winning European team in the Sir Michael Bonallack Trophy.
Ford, Hutsby, Whitnell and Wood made their full England debuts in last year’s Home Internationals, while Hutsby and Uzzell were capped for the first time against France last month.
The average age of the team is just over 20 with Uzzell, at 24, the oldest, while Haines, Hutsby and Whitnell are still teenagers.
This will be the 26th playing of the championships and England has lifted the title on nine occasions, the last being at Hillside in 2005.
Last year in Scotland, Ireland emerged as champions with England in fourth place.
The England team:
Charlie Ford (Kirby Muxloe), Matt Haines (Rochester & Cobham), Sam Hutsby (Liphook), Steve Uzzell (Hornsea), Dale Whitnell (Five Lakes), Chris Wood (Long Ashton). -