Ireland easy winners from

Scotland with England

third in Spain

FROM THE PGAs OF EUROPE WEBSITE
Eighteen holes on cruise control, with no dramatic charges necessary, saw Ireland safely through to victory in the PGAs of Europe’s International Team Championship at Roda, Murcia, in south-east Spain, leaving the rest of the field to play a separate ‘match’ for the lesser placings.
As the fearful weather of earlier days gave way to more typical Mediterranean conditions, Ireland’s scoring simply became a case doing what they had to do.
This comprised of two under each by Eamon Brady and John Kelly to carve another four strokes off their 16-under-par overnight total for a phenomenal final total of 20-under-par 556 and an eight-stroke margin over Scotland who strove with Tartan grit to narrow the gap.
Sam Cairns typified the Scottish determination to chase a lost cause right to the final green and could feel justifiably proud of his five-under par 67 as could England’s Paul Wesselingh who carded a similar score as his tournament contribution increased each day.
To complete a battling day for England, Paul Simpson, the reigning Glenmuir British Club Champion, carded a 69, leaving the second and third-placed teams wondering what the heck they had to do to slow down Ireland’s trouble-free journey to their second ITC title.
There were plenty of sterling performances recorded throughout the ranks of the 24 teams who contested this year’s event including Wales’s Red Dragon spirit in staying well up the leaderboard despite losing the unwell Richard Dinsdale for the second time in three days.
Andrew Barnett, who starred in last year’s runners-up team, and Matthew Griffiths, were both two under and finished alongside Italy in joint fifth position at two over par.
Although this is purely a team championship, rather than an individual one, it’s always worth admiring the extra-special rounds such as a fine 66 by Belgium’s Gilles Monville.
Germany produced one of their best finishes in the championship thanks largely to another 67 by Lee Spencer who, helped by a 71 from Jason Evans steered them to fourth place on two under par.
Spencer's eight-under-par individual total of 280 earned him the honour of returning the lowest 72-hole total of the week.
Ireland's Robert Giles (a Yorkshireman) and Sam Cairns, pro at Colville Park Golf Club, Motherwell, finished up one shot behind, joint second on 281.

Robert Arnott (Bishopbriggs), another member of the Scotland team, finished fourth in the individual classification on 283.

The third member of the Tartan Tour team was Uphall pro Gordon Law who did not have the happiest of weeks on the Roda golf course. None of his four scores counted under the best two from three daily format.

Other Scots in the field were Douglas Nicoll from Letham Grange, playing for the Austrian PGA, and Stephen Hubner from Caldwell, Glasgow, playing for the United Arab Emirates.

TEAM TOTALS
Par 576 (8 x 72)
556 IRELAND 140 141 135 140 (Robert Giles 72 69 67 73, Eamon Brady 69 72 75 70, John Kelly 71 77 68 70).
564 SCOTLAND 144 140 142 138 (Sam Cairns 74 69 71 67, Robert Arnott 70 71 71 71, Gordon Law 75 73 77 73).
569 ENGLAND 144 151 138 136 (Paul Simpson 70 70 67 69, Paul Wesselingh 74 75 71 67, Will Barnes 83 76 73 70).
574 GERMANY 150 144 142 138 (Lee Spencer 74 72 67 67, Denis Prosser 79 72 75 72, Jason Evans 76 75 79 71).
578 WALES 145 148 145 140 (Andrew Barnett 73 72 72 70, Matthew Griffiths 74 76 74 70, Richard Dinsdale 72 retired 73 retired); ITALY 149 146 141 142 (Alessandro Napoleoni 78 75 69 70, Giorgia Grillo 77 71 72 73, Maura Bianco 72 75 75 72).
584 SWEDEN 153 147 143 141 (Fredrik Ericsson 76 75 70 69, Mikael Berglund 77 74 73 72, Johan Klubb 78 73 77 78).
585 BELGIUM 151 147 146 141 (Francois Nicolas 74 71 74 80, Arnaud Beaupain 77 78 72 75, Giles Monville 80 81 77 66).
586 AUSTRIA 151 146 145 143 (Justin Brink 76 71 72 73, Douglas Nicol 78 75 73 76, Steve Waltman 83 75 74 70).

587 FINLAND 153 149 147 138 (Harri Murtonen 75 74 72 75, Sakari Aho 78 78 75 68, Jyry Paltomaki 78 75 76 70); HOLLAND 146 147 145 149 (Ben Collier 73 71 69 73, Joosi Steenkamer 73 76 76 76, Eric Kruijning 81 78 82 76).

589 SOUTH AFRICA 148 152 146 142 (Michael Michell 84 85 84 70, Johan Van Vuuren 74 77 73 72, Paul McErlean 80 79 78 78).

590 SWITZERLAND 149 152 149 140 (Chris Aegerter 76 76 73 70, James Johnson 75 76 76 70, Jean-Yan Dusson 74 77 76 72).

591 SLOVENIA 151 151 146 143 (Janez Griic 76 75 73 68, Daniel Kraijic 75 76 73 75, Milan Sopko 75 81 85 77), NORWAY 155 147 148 141 (John Elgborn 78 72 75 70, Thomas Oderud 79 84 82 78.

593 BULGARIA 148 155 144 146 (Neil Turley 74 77 69 71, David Eddiford 74 78 79 78, Nikolay Stanev 84 86 81 78).

594 DENMARK 154 152 149 139 (Christian Roar 77 73 77 67, Stephen Smith 80 789 72 72, Michael Kaae Brund 77 82 78 76).

598 SPAIN 152 150 149 147 (Sebastian Miguel 77 74 74 72, Luis Navarro 75 70 75 75, David Bedia ret 79 79 75).

599 CZECH REPUBLIC 150 158 151 140 (Petr Strougal 76 79 75 70, Jiri Janda 74 84 76 73, Jiri Nemececk 81 79 78 70).

603 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 150 153 154 146 (Luke Cantello 84 78 77 71, Stephen Hubner 75 84 77 75, Nick Oakley 75 75 79 85).

607 POLAND 156 157 148 146 (Mike O'Brien 75 80 73 74, David Ekberg 81 83 75 72, Martyn Proctor 83 77 78 69).

622 LUXEMBOURG 160 155 156 151 (Leon Marks 79 77 80 72, John Pickford 81 78 77 79, Julian Pailler 82 88 79 83).

634 CROATIA 165 162 152 155 (Neno Smoljenovic 81 81 76 78, Miro Raic 84 81 77 77, Darco Ljubanovic 86 81 76 81).

635 SLOVAKIA 155 163 163 154 (Peter Spacek 80 80 80 77, Milan Sopko 75 81 85 77, Michal Oravec 91 82 83 83).

LEADING INDIVIDUALS

Par 288 (4 x 72)

280 Lee Spencer (Germany) 74 72 67 67.

281 Sam Cairns (Scotland) 74 69 71 67, Robert Giles (Ireland) 72 69 67 73.

283 Robert Arnott (Scotland) 70 71 71 71.

285 Paul Simpson (England) 70 79 67 69

286 Ben Collier (Holland) 73 71 69 73, John Kelly (Ireland) 71 77 68 70, Eamon Brady 69 72 75 70.

287 Paul Wesselingh (England) 74 775 71 67, Andrew Barnett (Wales) 73 72 72 70.

290 Fredrik Ericsson (Sweden) 76 75 70 69.

291 Neil Turley (Bulgaria) 74 77 69 71.

292 Justin Brink (Austria) 76 71 72 73, Janez Grilc (Slovenia) 76 75 73 68.

Selected scores:

294 Matthew Griffiths (Wales) 74 76 74 70.

297 Sebastian Miguel (Spain) 77 74 74 72.

298 Gordon Law (Scotland) 75 73 77 73.

300 Douglas Nicoll (Austria) 76 75 73 76.

301 Luis Navarro (Spain) 75 76 75 75.

302 Will Barnes (England) 83 76 73 70

311 Stephen Hubner (United Arab Emirates) 75 84 77 75.