England Golf has confirmed the eight players who will wear the rose for the European Team Championships for Golfers with a Disability at Golf Club Genova Sant’Anna in Italy on July 16-18.
Held every two years, the event provides an international team competition platform for golfers with disabilities. The championship includes two events – the European Team Championship and the European Nations Cup. Both require countries to field mixed-gender teams of players from different sport bands.
The European Team Championship is a gross score event, where mixed-gender teams of four compete in greensomes on day one, foursomes on day two, and greensomes on day three. Lee (Band 1), Chris Foster (Band 2, Hanbury Manor, Hertfordshire), Heather Gilks (Band 3, Coventry, Warwickshire) and Oliver Hirst-Greenham (Band 4, Morecambe, Lancashire) make up the four-person England team looking to win gold for the first time having finished second in 2024.
Meanwhile, the European Nations’ Cup is a nett stableford competition played with the same format. Ken Powell (Band 1, North Foreland, Kent), John Eakin (Band 2, Royal Ashdown Forest, Sussex), Aimi Bullock (Band 3, Crowborough Beacon, Sussex) and Andrew Gardiner (Band 4, Bicester, BB&O) feature in the four-player side, and they will be hoping to build on the team’s second place finishes in all four editions of the event to-date.
England Golf has also named Phil Meadows (Band 1), Tony Lloyd (Band 2), Amie Ing (Band 3) and Syed Waqas Ul Hassan Shah (Band 4) as non-travelling reserves.
Disability Squad head coach Adam Keogh said: “Having achieved a silver medal in the last two versions of the European Team Championship, we are hopeful we can go one step further. The team were exceptional at the recent squad coaching session and between now and arriving in Italy, we have the English Open where we hope to have more squad success.
“To be successful in Italy we will have to overcome the challenges of the likely high temperatures and a mountainous golf course. With the format being amended for this event to feature a mix of foursomes and greensomes, it will require a complete team effort.”
You can find out about each of the players here or by visiting the EDGA website.
